The installation Medicine Cabinets are four cantilevered cabinets suspended at head level, grouped to encompass (hold) the viewer. The cabinets contain visual metaphors for various brain processes and structures. They suggest the skull as physical container. The cabinets are made with the desire to provide healing, one coming to a cabinet for aid with their own healing process.
Each of the cabinets was made as a complete drawing; the physicality of drawing, both on and off the flat plane, is integral to the development of the installation. The activity of each cabinet evolved simultaneously with the drawing activity, (the evidence of hand movements in relation to contact with specific media: wire, etching tools, irons filings, and felt, for example.) The schematic drawings used are a play between electronics schema, healing mandhalas, the symmetry of the body and anatomy. The mandhalas I refer to here are healing drawings made with the intention of affecting improvements in the health and well-being of individuals or groups.
The first cabinet, Mirror Cabinet / Psyche, is the most obvious play with traditional mirror-fronted medicine cabinets. A drawing is etched into the reflective surface, allowing for an exposed interior containing cast shadows and penumbras. These shadow shapes shift as the viewer moves. The viewer notes their reflection while gazing into the depths of the cabinet, creating references to the relationship between mind and body, perception and action.
Aspiration Cabinet relates to the breathe and to desire, both definitions of aspiration. The desire is for healing, the staving off of death, an aspiration for peace. This cabinet is the most porous and transparent of the four, This permeability reflects the skin, the circulatory system and the oxygenation of the brain. The “cell-structures” formed at the base extend the breathe of this cabinet.
The third cabinet, Generator Cabinet, plays with the form of a basic electrical generator. The generation of electricity is created by a wire moving rapidly between two permanent magnets. The Generator Cabinet suggests the movement of electrical impulses and chemical signals that occur between synapses in the brain. Cognition develops as synapses fire, forging patterns of understanding and knowledge.
The Density Cabinet is made of wool felt and wax. The shapes floating in a field of connectors recall the brain imaging of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, where slices of areas of brain function are made visible. The substance of the felt recalls the dense fibrous regions of the brain containing dendrites and axons.
The installation Medicine Cabinets are four cantilevered cabinets suspended at head level, grouped to encompass (hold) the viewer. The cabinets contain visual metaphors for various brain processes and structures. They suggest the skull as physical container. The cabinets are made with the desire to provide healing, one coming to a cabinet for aid with their own healing process.
Each of the cabinets was made as a complete drawing; the physicality of drawing, both on and off the flat plane, is integral to the development of the installation. The activity of each cabinet evolved simultaneously with the drawing activity, (the evidence of hand movements in relation to contact with specific media: wire, etching tools, irons filings, and felt, for example.) The schematic drawings used are a play between electronics schema, healing mandhalas, the symmetry of the body and anatomy. The mandhalas I refer to here are healing drawings made with the intention of affecting improvements in the health and well-being of individuals or groups.
The first cabinet, Mirror Cabinet / Psyche, is the most obvious play with traditional mirror-fronted medicine cabinets. A drawing is etched into the reflective surface, allowing for an exposed interior containing cast shadows and penumbras. These shadow shapes shift as the viewer moves. The viewer notes their reflection while gazing into the depths of the cabinet, creating references to the relationship between mind and body, perception and action.
Aspiration Cabinet relates to the breathe and to desire, both definitions of aspiration. The desire is for healing, the staving off of death, an aspiration for peace. This cabinet is the most porous and transparent of the four, This permeability reflects the skin, the circulatory system and the oxygenation of the brain. The “cell-structures” formed at the base extend the breathe of this cabinet.
The third cabinet, Generator Cabinet, plays with the form of a basic electrical generator. The generation of electricity is created by a wire moving rapidly between two permanent magnets. The Generator Cabinet suggests the movement of electrical impulses and chemical signals that occur between synapses in the brain. Cognition develops as synapses fire, forging patterns of understanding and knowledge.
The Density Cabinet is made of wool felt and wax. The shapes floating in a field of connectors recall the brain imaging of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, where slices of areas of brain function are made visible. The substance of the felt recalls the dense fibrous regions of the brain containing dendrites and axons.
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