MONUMENT
Monument is a video, sound and light installation consisting of projected visuals distorted through a tube, transmitting a clear, circular projection onto its adjacent wall. The auditory experience contrasts and layers the obscurity of the visuals by adding a narrative element through field recorded soundscapes. On the floor, beneath the tube lies a small futon-style, single bed on which the audience is encouraged to lie. This format of a video installation challenges the conventions of viewing film. It highlights its physicality through the presence of the objectified tube that exists in the middle of the space. The bed allows for a more personal point of engagement within a public realm wherein the public also views the person viewing, who becomes part of what is being viewed. This speaks to the relationship between public and personal spaces and how one digests transmitted information publicly and privately.
It is in fact the things we find too obvious to talk about and observe, that may give us immense insight into issues of our space and culture, seeing as it’s the routines which seem the most obvious, that we actually understand the most on a deep and unconscious level. “Monument” attempts to bring the unconscious and obvious to the surface through the seemingly alien form of the abstracted visuals in the tube, making the viewer second-guess the obviousness of their naturalised surroundings.
The video, sound and light installation was shown at Gallery MOMO Cape Town in July 2018 as part of the gallery's forth annual video exhibition, Transmissions, and again in Johannesburg where they were invited to show "Monument" in launching the 99 Juta design showrooms space situated in Braamfontein, which is the cultural melting pot of Johannesburg.
