"El Pasaje"
Screens of colored chiffon cover each of the 20 arched openings. This delicate material allows sunlight to filer through and bathe the passage and the pedestrian in a gossamer of light, a radiance of alternating colors spanning the length of the arcade.
Observing the building from the street the arched openings of the arcade become large stained glass windows mimicking the arched openings and the windows above.
In daylight, the building can be said to be acting as a collector or receiver, gathering solar energy, replenishing and recouping visual energy. The screens act as organizers and translators of the conduit of light. At dusk and into night, the screens begin to rotate very slowly, sails powered by a gentle solar wind.
Images splash onto the spinning screens from projectors, suggesting the building is discharging its store of life, its visual library, breathing with the spinning earth on its nocturnal path, inviting us to transport through...
Artist's Comments
"For several years the focus of my work has been on perceiving my environment as if for the first time. The challenge is to constantly see and perceive afresh.
"We humans often fix ideas, objects and people by compartmentalizing. By consciously opening the eyes and attempting to see deeper into everything within the gaze and expecting by this act that the environment will change, we are then prone to change ourselves. This openness can radically alter the patina of our consciousness and the color of our behavior.
"We begin to perceive the often stale familiar, and find our environment full of potential and promise. We grow and become appreciative of the creative opportunity surrounding us. When the possibility of an object is expanded beyond its traditional usage the perception of the observer of that object can be altered forever; it refreshes and become new every time it is observed.
"It was in light of these thoughts that I conceived the installation I have titled "El Pasaje". I was invited by the Ybor Festival of the Moving Image to transform the El Pasaje building into something other than it is perceived to be and yet keep the architectural integrity intact.
"Another concept I was asked to address was to change the timbre of the building into something that resonates harmoniously with its environment and with the objective of having the work integrate into the motion media component of the festival."