EYE2I
Stereoscopic Photography Installation
2013
6-30 JUNE 2013, MARS Gallery, Port Melbounre
'Binocular vision can be as perplexing as our bisected brain, one side logical, the other emotional.
It is capable of depth perception as in stereo photography, a sixth sense through peripheral vision, and in the case of these portraits, a desire to integrate a potent duality.
As you concentrate on the face your two eyes alternate from left to right as they try to believe the image. The result is a wonderful speculation on reality, duality and credibility.'
- John Gollings, 2013
EYE 2 I extends my interest into binocular visual depth perception. This project takes two forms: the first is a series of 15 head studies presented in medium format stereoscopes inset into custom built boxes mounted on the wall. The second is a series of large format inkjet prints of faces drawn from the series of head studies. In these prints two people, one male and one female, have been fused together to create a new face, an androgynous new being.
Using the visceral experience of looking directly into the eyes of another person as a point of departure this project exploits the mechanisms of stereoscopic vision to create a place of encounter, confrontation and intimacy.
In the moment of eye contact we feel ourselves seeing as well as being seen. The sense of 'self' and 'other' is compounded into an electric transmission. When we meet eye-to-eye vision becomes touch. The cold voyeuristic distance of sight collapses into a feedback loop of two beings searching and sensing each other. Be it confrontational or intimate, caring or pleading, confessional, coy, bold, or aggressive. A truth is always present in that moment.
This project offers the viewer an opportunity to stare intimately into the eyes of a stranger, to study the landscape of their face, encountering it as a volumetric form rather than a flat portrait. This work plays a dark game with the resonant sensations of proximity and disembodiment inherent in the experience of viewing a stereoscope.
