Mascaron de Proa, 1996

Installation at Mathews Art Center, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

The exhibition space has an L-shaped main floor and a mezzanine which overlooks it and is accessible via a stairway on a side wall near the entrance.   For the installation, the main floor is fitted with a grid of aircraft cable (about 5 feet above the floor) on which rests a large (55 x 40') photographic image of a man's naked chest on multiple plywood panels. The panels are joined together loosely using grommets and chain.  The image is lit by two motorized spotlights sweeping across the surface from the mezzanine.  Below the panels are 37 rollout beds in rows that are lit fleetingly by moving light through gaps between the panels.  No access to the main floor is given other than a visual one.  At the corner of the mezzanine suspended out from the wall is a steel structure with a chair overlooking the panels below.  It resembles the bowsprit of a ship.  A video camera mounted at the end of the structure points at the chair from the front.  On the mezzanine floor is another steel structure, resembling a crow's nest and ladder, with a stool on its platform.  There are two video monitors mounted on brackets on the railing of the mezzanine, so they can be viewed from the mezzanine floor.