A Fast Radio Burst from hydroSphere_C

Welcome.

Pedestals are commonly used to communicate questions and ideas of importance to the artist by elevating symbolic objects and images and making them accessible for viewers. Like us, they influence and are influenced by the space and time that they exist within. Arranged deliberately and sometimes subversively, these often-invisible facets of our art spaces can become portals, elevators, mirrors and signposts that point toward the unknown. This investigation wonders aloud what these arrangements would look like out in the world, as well as in our homes, our galleries, and in our hearts.

In the quest to understand truth, self and reality, my research drew me toward unsolved mysteries of the mind and the universe. The mystery around geomancy and mentation has inspired my curiosity, as have artworks – 2D, 3D, and time-based – that explore these ideas. With virtual works such Remote View and Portal (2020), I have sought to connect this otherworldly presence with site-specific, interactive performance art to promote a sense of mystery, discovery and play.

I have also sought to achieve this sense of curiosity and empowerment with performance works such as Kindness, 2020. This time-based piece unfolded during an assembly Bancroft School in Worcester MA, where the artist is employed as an art educator. In this interactive work, a googley-eyed robotic pedestal named Arthur (or “Art”) delivered art materials to children, provided space and time for creativity and collaboration, and then collected and displayed their creations in real time.

As before, I seek to develop practices that effectively break the 4th wall that often separates viewer and artist. Through installations that utilize projection mapping, works such as Family Time and Untitled (2020) seek understand home, travel, and the ever-evolving nature of life on both sides of the pedestal, frame, or screen.These videos are self-referential and intertwined with the artist’s reality, and like the moments they strive to capture, are ephemeral and change according to perception, memory, and perspective.

By intentionally blurring lines and peering into the darkness, I hope to tease out essential truths and understandings, engage viewers through interaction, and elevate others just as pedestals uplift art. If these paths leads anywhere useful, it is toward a light in which we can better understand and connect with others, the self, and the universal.

-Cory Shepherd

Projection