Untitled 1991
Installation allows me to connect the viewer physically to the piece. Giving the viewer an active role makes them part of "the system" referred to in the work.
Description
In one room, four video monitors sit on chairs around a kitchen table, each showing the face of a person from Pittsburgh’s Northside region. They carry on a conversation. One of the neighbors recalls that the building now housing the museum was a candy factory; she remembers that the workers sometimes tossed candy from the windows to neighbor children. Each TV head speaks, then turns to listen to another talking head.
But no sound comes from the monitors. To hear these ordinary, human reminiscences, the visitor is forced to go to the adjacent room, put on a helmet, and walk around the room to get close to the transmitters.
It is not possible to see and hear simultaneously. The visitor is required to become an “antenna,” in order to completely experience the installation.
Artist Statement
Installation allows me to connect the viewer physically to the piece. Giving the viewer an active role makes them part of “the system” referred to in the work.
Diana Burgoyne is a Canadian artist known for her installations and performance works using handmade electronics. Since the mid-1980’s, Burgoyne has produced work that combines handmade electronics with aspects of sculpture, installation and live performance. Her work looks at the interaction of society, technology, culture, and environment, and their impact on the human body.
She received her BFA from the University of Victoria, BC and her MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles.