geophasms ("sheer mala copy")

automobile, projector, four-channel audio, speakers, projection film
dimensions & media run-time variable
2016

Part of geophasms

geophasms (“sheer mala copy”) was exhibited at Bronco Gallery in October 2016 and produced specifically for the interior of a 1991 Ford Bronco. This installation was comprised of a single-channel digital video projection and two separate stereo audio tracks played within and around the stationary automobile. Visitors were invited to sit inside the cab of the gallery, listening to conversations unfold between an absent driver and passenger as they “talk story” while navigating the island of Kaua’i. The separate audio tracks are edited into asynchronous loops, so that ambient field recordings of surf, traffic, marketplaces and island radio stations from the rear-mounted external speakers drown out portions of the internal dialogue, giving each viewer a unique experience.

High-definition video captured from the dashboard of the original vehicle are projected onto the windshield of the surrogate, the Bronco Gallery, in a third asynchronous loop.From press materials:“sheer mala copy” is a fleeting iteration of an on-going series of expanded cinema presentations entitled geophasms. Talking story is a ubiquitous cultural element in Polynesia, unstructured discussions of issues pertaining to daily life, family history or spirituality. It is a method of knowledge transference, an oral tradition that has permeated all aspects of life in the Pacific and works to elongate time in multiple directions. It has the power to expand a casual afternoon stop-in into a full day dialogue, and a memory of a car ride into a multi-generational timeslip. Here, talking story is further mediated through extensive use of the cut-up technique to create small loops of interlocking narratives and concrete poetry, deviations of time and space, fifth dimensional exchanges of knowledge. These conversations recorded on the islands of O’ahu and Kaua’i have been transposed to the interior of Bronco Gallery.