Title

1/1

Authors

Michelle Bunton, Western UniversityFollow

Streaming Media

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2016

Abstract

Creating installations through athletic or “gym” aesthetics, my work embodies a high-intensity atmosphere in which technological, human, and material bodies compete and grate against one another. Collectively the components of my installations strive towards an extension of the self or psyche, reaching beyond a deterioration of materiality to achieve pseudo-stasis through recording technologies. However, video and sound technologies ultimately fail to either fully reanimate or fully neutralize a recorded subject, instead what is produced is an intermediary image simply relocated into a new physical body that is equally subject to deterioration. Yet, in its mechanical form, the recording contains the potential for extension into a space of “potentia”.

My practice attempts to articulate via digital, analog and sculptural techniques, a perseverance towards preservation. In consideration of said perseverance, I view the hyper-athletic body as analogous with the recorded image: both engage in the futile attempt to maintain a past and temporary state, and project the living body beyond its inherent deterioration. Displays of endurance, resilience, and anxiety within my work critically visualize the principles of self-discipline, training and reward involved in an athlete’s success and failure.

Notes

Regional Winner in the Visual Arts category.