phaos
above: excerpt from Phaos, 2010, high definition video, sound composition (to hear the sound press the sound icon located in the lower right corner of the moving image)
Phaos
2010
high definition video and sound composition, duration: 9 minutes 2 seconds, limited edition, 3 + 2 AP
series of video stills, dimensions variable, limited edition, 3 + 2 AP
installation: books, maps, music scores, and military phones from before 1945, artist’s drawings on book pages
performance: the artist dressed in a long black gown lies on top of the archival materials of the installation and draws around her body using charcoal and graphite sticks, with her eyes closed
performance for video: the artist is curled up inside of the chimney (House 404 at Governors Island) performing gestures of lamentation
Phaos premiered as a site-specific public project on Governors Island, New York, as part of a series of long-term public projects, The Sixth Borough (2010), curated by No Longer Empty (Manon Slome, Julian Navarro, Regine Basha) in collaboration with Asher Remy Toledo, Hyphen-Hub, New York
below: selected video stills, limited edition, 3 + 2AP
Credits
written, directed, choreographed, performed, filmed, recorded, composed, and edited by the artist
Artist Statement
When I was invited to propose a project for Governors Island, at first I research the history of the place. In the process of going there, many times back and forth, I realized the journey on the ferry was what I wanted to focus on. The ferry symbolically evokes the meaning of the work, connoting the lives of the immigrants arriving to this city about a hundred years before me. Phaos became a poetic investigation of the relationships between place and memory. Greek word “phaos” (light) etymologically relates to “phantom” (illusion, unreality). The project implies a possibility of an alternative reality coexisting within the palpable reality of a given space, blurring the division between the inside (Room) and the outside (River). Composed of sound environment, projected video and floor installation of books, maps and military phones, as well as my performance, Phaos is a form of poetic investigation of the journey between Manhattan Island and Governors Island, allowing the River to become my partner in the process of choreography of movement and composition of sound.
- Monika Weiss
Press Excerpt
Upon entering the installation, viewers hear sounds of water and motor-like machine sounds mixed with human voices, whispering, singing or reading texts. The many layers of sound overlap and erase each other, creating an ambient and abstract sound composition reminding the viewers of their journey towards the Island, and potentially, “blurring the division between the inside (Room) and the outside (River)”.
Small objects cover the main floor and include books and maps published before 1945 as well as military objects such as field phones. Among them are small-scale drawings created by the artist with graphite on original maps and on pages torn out of the old books. In the adjacent room there is a video projection showing views of the journey towards and from the Island. Images of the River overlap with close-up views of documents, military object and the interior rooms of the House 404. In another sequence we see the artist, dressed in black, curled up and lying upon the floor sculpture as she draws around her body, leaving marks and traces of charcoal and graphite. The open books and maps in the installation are thus marked witha new layer of abstract meaning.
- Manon Slome, Julian Navarro, and Regine Basha, curatorial statement for The Sixth Borough, No Longer Empty at Governors Island, New York, 2010
Exhibitions
The Sixth Borough, 2010, No Longer Empty at Governors Island, New York, curated by Manon Slome, Julian Navarro, and Regine Basha
John Cage Tribute: Monika Weiss, Streaming Museum at Big Screen Plaza, New York, 2012, curated by Nina Colosi
