The TV will tell me where to look (2018)
Two UHD TVs, two-channel sound, ceiling mounts
(28:43)
The TV will tell me where to look is a two-channel site-specific installation that highlights the physical nuances, architecture, and defects of OUTPOST: a gallery space indicative of specific histories that have transpired within this environment. Playing on two large UHD TVs are a series of shots that cinematically focus on different 'features' of the space (details of the walls, marks on the floor, impressions made by both human intervention and natural causes) that may or may not be readily seen by the casual observer. Using cinematic tropes such as slow moving dollying shots, panning shots, zooming shots, and rack focusing shots, the work pinpoints a variety of these features, one after another, creating and embedding a narrative within the gallery occupying both fiction and reality. An accompanying quiet and dramatic soundtrack works in tandem with the images to dramatise specific features of the gallery as they appear on frame, highlighting a benign or unremarkable occurrence through ominous and harrowing sounds, similar to how TV shows and movies use them to punctuate dramatic scenes.
The work highlights the tension created between the real and the virtual (the lived perception of space versus the space as shown through a dictated TV narrative). The audience is encouraged to perform for the TV, actively looking or glancing around, locating what the TV is showing them within the gallery space. Audiences will begin to question if the features displayed within the video are really occupying the room and if the shots themselves are accurate representations of the space.
