Figure No Figure (2020)

A collaboration with Gerard Rutten

Exhibition: In “A Closed Box”, Grey Street Gallery, Griffith University, Brisbane (10-23 Feb, 2020).

A picture frame as a face invokes a surreal figure. On a viewer’s approach, the face takes unexpected dynamic form. But what do we read into that activated “face”? Is it horrifying? Uncanny? Whimsical? Cathartic? Our past experiences and cultural environment cast the figure into a reflection of our subconscious. Through our interaction, do we read more life into a figure trapped behind glass or does it just dissolve into a responsive dynamic sculpture?

Figure No Figure is an interactive sculptural installation that activates on the approach of a viewer, with a framed black area suddenly appearing as a swirl of white ping-pong balls.

The work can detect the presence of people through walls, including glass. It was installed as part of the exhibition “A Closed Box” which showed interactive works that were in a locked gallery space but with which viewers could interact from outside.