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Installation view
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Installation view
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Devil's Hole :
A Phantasmagoric Installation
In the tradition of the 19th century cycloama and phantasmagoria, Devil's Hole creates a 360 panoramic environment with surrounding sound. Before photography, a phantasmagoria consisted of hand-painted magic lantern slides projected images of demons on the walls around the audience, playing to their fantasies and fears. Devil's Hole illustrates an abstracted space filled with water and floating figures which swirl around the viewer.
The figurative forms and the water contrast fears loss and the unknown with the intentionality of sport and and exploration of space. The line between the pleasure of swimming and the terror of drowning can be easily crossed. Americans seem fascinated by a controlled environment fear as entertainment. We give up the responsibility of our own survival to a corporation that will guarantee it to us. I've been into the Devil's Hole riding in a jet boat and happily entering an environment I knew could not be survived. I felt less safety sitting on the rocks at the edge of the water.
Devil's Hole is an exploration of representation of the landscape and perceptions space incorporating nineteenth century technology and modern fears. The figures in the work are men in a progression of dressed to undressed. The suit is out of place in the water suggesting the figure was drawn in against his will. The naked figures could be intentionally swimming, or their clothes could have been torn away by the currents.
The dual figural images are projected with red/blue light and overlaid on monochromatic projected images of a cataract. The lantern slide projectors are assembled in the center of the room in the form of a cyclone. Wearing red/blue glasses, the view sees the red/blue figures floating in a space that is difficult to reconcile or understand. They also see their own shadows in the rushing water, bringing their own figures into the piece.
An illusion of depth is achieved when each of the viewer's eyes sees a separate photograph, each taken from a perspective a few inches apart. Usually, optical devices such as stereo-viewers or specially filtered glasses are necessary to insure that each eye sees only the image intended for it. A red filter blocks the blue light reflected by blue ink while allowing all of the light reflected by the red ink. Viewed through a red filter blue ink appears black while red ink is indiscernible from the white of the paper. A red/blue image viewed through blue/red filtered glasses appears black and white and allows the illusion of depth. With glasses, the image falls away from the viewer into the paper.
Stereo illusion works if two images are taken side by side and the subject occupy the same space in both images. If the subject changes position between exposures, the illusion won't work. Usually, a stereo camera uses two lenses to make simultaneous exposures on the same piece of film. When photographing the ocean surf for my series Blue Water, I duct-taped a pair of Lomo cameras together and pressed both shutter releases at the same moment. The stereo images of Niagara Falls and it's cataracts for that series were created with a single camera. Between the camera (a Mamiya RB67) and the tripod I put a device allowing the camera to be slide side to side a few inches. A slow shutter speed lasting several seconds turned the water poring over the rocks into a constant form. The water, although constantly in motion, occupied the same position in each exposure.
In Devil's Hole, the red/blue figures are a constructed illusion. Each figure was photographed once, and printed twice. Two positive ortho-lith prints were each placed in a separate projector, one filtered with red gels and the other with blue. When the entire piece was assembled, the projected images were made to overlap with the amount of the overlap creating the illusion of more or less depth.
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