Installation: Clouds

Ten motorized crinolines mounted on the ceiling, shiny black vinyl flooring

2000-2001

Informed by a psychoanalytic theory of fetishism, this installation explores the multiple associations suggested by the crinolines as objects as well as the histories, theories and objects that influence our own self-definition and desires. There is a tension between what psychoanalysis explains via the unconscious, and what we actually experience in a physical, conscious, and sensory way. This work alludes to that experience when entering the space and being positioned between a black shiny floor and the rotating crinolines above.  “Clouds” refers to the euphemism of one “having their head in the clouds” as well as the captivating nature of the crinolines and “looking up the skirts”.

Please see the video below of the installation, with the crinolines in motion.