CatharineClarkGallery

The visuals of In Your Absence are comprised of footage of 40 skies from cities around the world and accompanied by quadraphonic sound featuring 13 versions of the American classic I'm Gonna Make You Love Me, reconfigured and remixed. Each element (the visual projections and the 2 separate audio tracks vary in length and will phase throughout the course of the exhibition, offering viewers a unique and singular experience at each visit. The work investigates the cognitive dissonance of obsession, sap, erasure, kitsch and the sublime in conventional notions of love. 

We Became Statues synthesizes a series of interviews with Catherine Arline who worked for New York City and State in myriad capacities, including social worker and case supervisor, for more than forty years. Her audio serves as the foundation of the piece, tracing us through decades of experiences in the New York mental health system. The visual footage echoes the circuitous constructions of Arline's narration. We Became Statues explores the mental health system as a metaphor for the process of abstracting an individual and the construction of social invisibility.