"Abyssal," 2016, silk, debris, 40 x 24 x 8 feet, dimensions variable. installation images courtesy of Daniel Kukla.
(scroll down for project description)
Live performance during the opening of Paloma McGregor and Maira Duarte.
“Abyssal” (2016) is an immersive installation that was at FiveMyles Gallery. It is an imagined oceanic space. Symbolically, the ocean is the connective tissue between ‘here’ (NY) and ‘there’ (the Philippines), two spaces that connote ‘home’ yet neither being a complete cultural anchor. The ocean symbolizes a mythological dimension of the unknown, where things disappear, are preserved, and transform. I re-imagined my process of mining personal and historical narratives through the idea of casting wide nets into the deepest parts of the ocean. In the attempt to capture and contain lost information, I acquired natural debris and objects that have been altered and transformed by the water.
In collaboration with Or Zublasky, I created audio vignettes. The audio is a compilation of recorded interviews with various family members from the Philippines, living and deceased. Their voices are contained within the nets. As visitors walked through the installation they would hear layered whispering and murmuring. Depending on where they stood, one voice would be louder than the other.
The lights were programmed to dim and brighten at random times throughout the day, giving the sensation of the sun peeking through and disappearing behind clouds.
The environment is not a static or fixed space, but rather an unending attempt to excavate the vast space of cultural memory. For the opening, two performers in an elevated space continue to weave the fabric net in silence, creating new nets, pointing to the endless process that seeking entails.