Next Image
Images above are examples of some of the imagery that displays on the video monitor in the installation.
Project Description:
Scrub is an interactive video installation. Visitors to the gallery approach an area that resembles a kitchen. There is a sponge on the countertop, and a video monitor in the cabinet above that has been left open. The sponge is the visitor's interface to the piece. Visitors discover that if they push the sponge along the countertop, in a simple back and forth motion, the video displayed on the monitor changes.
On the screen, footage of the artist wearing rubber gloves and performing domestic tasks with a sponge appears. When the user scrubs the sponge, they are also scrubbing through the video footage. The way the footage is displayed directly corresponds to the way that the user manipulates the sponge. For example, fast scrubbing on the counter scrubs through the video footage faster.
Visitors will also discover that if they scrub in a particular direction, or at a particular speed, they get another surprise. Footage of the artist becomes interspersed with short segments from a pornographic movie, in which a housewife character wearing rubber gloves masturbates in her kitchen. The gestures of all three - porn star, artist, and user - mirror each other. The porn star and the artist scrub frantically to get off and get clean, and the user mimics their gestures to view all possible combinations of the footage.
Supported by: InterAccess Emerging Electronic Artist Award Grant, awarded 2001.
Exhibitions: Eastern Edge Gallery, St. John's, Newfoundland. March 2004.
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