Description of Work

Mind Over Moment - 2022 - Animation/Installation - Not For Sale

Artist's Statement

When we are actively paying attention to something, we make it our goal to focus on only that for as long as needed. However, when we are distracted by something, we lose sight of  our intended focus. The concept of attention being a truth comes from my individual  experiences, specifically conversations I have had where people have become distracted and  completely oblivious to our conversation. These frustrating conversations represent why it is important to show you are paying attention instead of being easily distracted. Therefore, my  work focuses on the concept of distraction versus attention as an underlining truth or falsehood  that comes from paying attention or being easily distracted.

This installation piece utilizes projection, along with a small monitor, to visually  represent the concept of distracting the viewer while simultaneously keeping their attention  between two different animations. What if you do not know what is true? Do you know how to  identify it? Can you pay attention and figure out why something is the way it is? These are the  questions the work prompts. I want the viewer to feel a struggle, as though they missed  something important or that they need to continue watching to fill in the missing blanks. But  also, to develop this relationship between keeping attention or being distracted while having this  underlining true and false mentality.

The wall projection will play an animation that will attempt to distract the viewers from  the center where a monitor will be displaying a second animation, which is designed to hold the  viewer’s attention. Both animations will push and pull the viewer's gaze away from one over the  other. Viewers are encouraged to walk around the piece and closely examine the central monitor,  but also stand back and observe the two animations as they relate to each other. The goal of this  project is to simultaneously present information and distract the audience by trying to force their  gaze away from the center monitor. In doing so, I aim to demonstrate that while it can be  difficult to pay attention, it is also rewarding to learn and develop everything you observe.

In keeping the viewers’ attention, I aim to guide them to focus and see this display of life  and the truths it holds, the same with distraction and the many lies it creates with its visual  narrative. With every new piece of information, you are given, you establish an internal moral  with that information and backtrack with your truth.

If you wish to purchase any of these pieces, please contact the gallery director, Jacqueline Nathan (jnathan@bgsu.edu.)