About Presence

The concept of Presence was birthed within a grocery store when you see yourself in surveillance footage. Akin to Malevich’s 0.10 Black Square, these surveillance TV’s are usually up high, suspended, hovering over you like some judgemental god, looming as if to say ‘i see everything,’ ‘i am everything.’ Mirrors, as depicted in horror films embody this same concept. Why are we scared of seeing ourselves replicated elsewhere? Are we scared of our previous or upcoming actions or thoughts - and that these might be exposed also? Or is it the fear that our flaws, which we try so much to conceal, might be unveiled? Or worse, is it that the simulcast of wanting to be unique and the only ‘you’ there is and this being disrupted that makes us feel this sense of deep discomfort?

This concept is what is known as the ‘uncanny valley.’

Presence, is deeply inspired by Alberto Burri, who used plastic as his medium and a blowtorch as his brush to create deep holes into his canvas. These, akin to the physical body of Presence, emulate the wounds of humanity. In this reimagined work, these wounds are then illuminated by live projection onto the canvas, which function as a form of mean surveillance to make audiences to see the faults in themselves. It probes, from its elevated position: what are you hiding? what have you to show? Ultimately, it humbles you; revealing that unfortunately, we are not unique.