INTERVENING SUBSTANCE: GALLERÍ ÚTHVERFA

Intervening Substance was exhibited at Gallerí Úthverfa in 2019 as part of my residency at artsIceland. featured video works and a print installation discussing the mediation of experience through technology. The show explores the way that cameras, screens, and smartphones control our perception of reality. As well, the use of these technologies through smartphones and social media has a major influence in the tourism industry in this country, especially with Icelandair’s #mystopover hashtag.

The exhibition came together quickly and meaningfully, with quick decisions having lasting meaningful impacts. Inspired by The Divine Invasion by Philip K. Dick, a science fiction novel about God’s return to earth after exile in an outer space colony, the book was the second in an unfinished series by Dick inspired by his experience of being possessed by the spirit of the prophet Elijah. The book echoes the story of Jesus’ birth, with God taking physical form and preparing for an encounter with The Adversary that takes turns between memory and alternate illusory reality which God comes transform from an immaterial realm of occlusion into a realm pervaded by his existence and given the authority of reality.

The title of the exhibition and window installation, Intervening Substance is inspired by this process wherein God makes his existence known to the denizens of the Realm of Occlusion to make them aware of the true nature of their reality. The idea of God/Nature piercing through the veil of illusion/technology is reflected in this tiny intervention of the ambient universal radiation through television static. The window installation, titled “Intervening Substance”, features a transparent print of pixels from an old television showing static, affecting the lighting of the space like stained glass. One percent of television static is made up of the cosmic microwave background radiation. This is the afterglow of the big bang which comes from every direction and permeates the entire universe.

As opposed to the degradation of the natural experience in the video projection “Realm of Occlusion”, this window installation represents the natural phenomena that underpins the seemingly artificial and digital experience.This video is meant to highlight the imperfect nature of smartphones as a means of consuming and transmitting experiences from a distance and their role in distorting our perception of reality and ourselves. Some of these videos were created with social media apps such as Instagram and Twitch and feature heavy distortion and pixelation caused by their compression algorithms. These distorted images become fields of undulating and shifting color, interspersed with clearer smartphone footage that shows the surrounding nature near the town of Ísafjörður that, though clearly showing nature, still exhibits artifacting and aberrations from compression, creating imperfect representations. Together these works show how technology is a double edged sword, as something that both enhances and diminishes the experience of the viewer. Realm of Occlusion was selected to be shown at the Art Gallery of Alberta as part of the exhibition “The Scene”