Shadow and Dust

Since 2007 my paintings had incrementally grown dynamically off the wall with a variety of materials. The progression of my paintings lead me to something more sculptural and immersive. I wanted to experiment with VR sculptures after I attended some creative VR workshop in 2017. I would trace my body and be traced with VR controllers that would track the movement and position and record as a line in virtual 3D space. The shell of a body was what remained. A series of performances took shape. I invented different methods of tracing my body using sticks to extend the VR controllers, rubber bands to hold buttons down, a gantry to suspend equipment from, springs and tethers to restrict movement to name a few. This work culminated into the show Shadow and Dust at The Powder Room in Pittsburgh in 2018. The show included 4 performances of tracing my body using the techniques I had developed while simultaneously broadcasting the performance as it looked in virtual reality on the walls of the gallery. Three light boxes were made for this show. Images of previous sculptures made in VR were printed on film and backlit. The glow of the backlit image being the analog for the VR headset as the two are similar with displayed imagery.