You Are Here, 2004
Installation at Ben Maltz Gallery, Otis College of the Arts, LA
Originally designed for an exhibition at the Art Gallery CSU Fullerton, in 1994, it was remounted and expanded for this iteration in 2004.
The entrance the gallery, normally a doorway into a large space, opens into a small domestic bathroom, tiled and appointed in the style of mid-century Southern California. The first sight is that of a bathtub and a tiled wall. All the fixtures have had their holes filled and have been reenameled. If one turns left upon entering, one exits through a door (down a small ramp) into the main gallery. Turning right into the bathroom, leads to (among other things), an open shower stall (doorless) with a hole broken through the back wall, like an entrance to a mineshaft. Passing through the hole one enters a long, winding tunnel about 5' tall (most people will have to stoop slightly) and 28 feet in length. The wooden structure of the tunnel is on the inside and it is skinned with patched-together paper shopping bags. When lit from the outside the interior has a warm amber glow. Security cameras are mounted at either end of the tunnel.
The passage opens into a circular, domed room 16 feet in diameter and about 12-1/2 feet tall. Reminiscent of a yurt, the walls have a temporary, handmade quality, with ribs of rebar (steel) covered by pieces of old carpet lining. At the center of the room is an enclosed ladder leading to an elliptical opening in the top of the dome. Also near the top, there are two more circular openings on opposite sides of the dome. There is another security camera near one of these openings facing inward and down towards the floor.
Around the periphery of this room, are actual working household appliances (used, older models). Their cords hang down to outlet panels on the floor near the walls of the room. As a person enters the room through the tunnel, a motion sensor triggers a computer to select and turn on from 1 to 5 of these appliances for about 20 seconds. Each person's entrance triggers a different selection.
If the viewer takes a left upon entering the bathroom and finds him/herself in the main gallery space, he/she will be confronted by a large hairy shirt, with a winding umbilicus connecting it to the back wall of the bathroom. No movement inside the shirt is visible except for the occasional emergence of a seemingly small head from the top. At the back of the room, one finds what appears to be a combination of a security office and an operating theater. There are B&W security monitors showing activity inside the tunnel and shirt/yurt.
