Anecdote (Relative Strangers #6)
2018
wooden stool, acrylic sheet, paint, motor,light
28 x 17 x 17
On a small wooden stool, a painted plexiglass silhouette spins rapidly. The shape, color, and motion of the cutout gives the appearance of a baby’s bottle full of milk, with a slight vibration that destabilizes the impression of volume.
In cinema or video, motion derives from still images arrayed in relationship to one another, and how those images are presented to our eyes. It takes advantage of the limits of our visual perception. Just as still images can create the appearance of motion if they flicker by at the right pace, a flat shape can appear as a volume, if it spins fast enough. In this piece, the edge of the silhouette reflects the light that hits it, and because it spins fast enough (about 500 rpm), that surface appears nearly continuous. The volume stands, but with a discernible intermittency, like the flicker of an old film.