Can You See You Through the Window?
2022, installation, eaglecell board, gaffer tape, chicken wire, kitchen paper towel, white glue, paper mache clay, insulating foam sealant, light photo/ Amanda Villegas
“Can You See You Through the Window?” (2022) is an installation of a 7 ft tall wall with a window opened at eye level and a convex mirror in the corner of the room.
It focuses on the overly self awareness as a problem in modern society.
The surface of the inside and outside of the wall appears different. Relatively, the exterior of the wall was smooth with the texture of EagleCell board, which is a kind of cardboard. The interior was constructed with a first layer of chicken wire that built a curvy and ruffled shape and coated with one to two layers of paper mache with kitchen paper towel. The window was a square with imperfect frames that connected to the chicken wire from the inner side of the structure, but was added with an extra layer of silky smooth paper mache clay on the top. While it was built with multiple kinds of paper and chicken wire, the entire work is white from the color of the material.
For the work lives inside a dark space, what brings the color to the work was the LED light that was installed only on the inner side of the structure, one on the top of the window, and two other in the chicken wire structure at the bottom of the wall. That warm white light shines through the paper mache, exposing the texture and veins of kitchen paper towel and chicken wire. That light was soft but dim. It appears similar to a cave, cacooning the viewer that enters the space.
“Why are we so critical when looking at ourselves?”
Let’s focus on the texture, the contrast between the interior and the exterior, then look over the square frame, can you see yourself in the mirror outside the window?
