Allen-Golder Carpenter
Viewer vs. Subject: Projection + Boundaries, 2024
inkjet print on film transparency, sheet protectors, tape, fiberglass threaded tape, inkjet print on photo paper, archival polypropylene photo album sleeves, iPhone, screen protectors, home security camera, sound
dimensions variable
unique
unique
Further images
“The installation consists of multiple parts, a curtain with a life size print of a security fence, interlaid with photographs of windows, that the viewer must pass through to enter...
“The installation consists of multiple parts, a curtain with a life size print of a security fence, interlaid with photographs of windows, that the viewer must pass through to enter the installation, a photo collage on the back most wall of the second gallery space, and an iPhone sculpture playing a video that cycles through all the images in the installation.
The photo collage consists of images from an ongoing ‘open source’ photo series, where I have been personally documenting, as well as receiving submitted examples of the phenomenon of what I call ‘walls of shame.’ Photo displays at establishments such as gas stations, convenience stores etc. that are made of security images of individuals caught stealing, put at the front of the store in an attempt to shame them. These ‘walls of shame’ are pictured on the curtain, with the faces of individuals cut out. For the installation, the faces from these images are taken and translated to a mosaic of 4 x 6 inch photographs, with different versions of each image, one clear which is later translated through various versions of visual censorship.
These images comprise half the photo installation, the other half will consist of images captured over the course of the exhibition, on a security camera in the gallery of visitors that enter the installation, when they ‘breach’ the security fence curtain.
The installation comes from a body of work that deals with the viewer / subject relationship, particularly as it relates to boundaries, transgression, and projection. When you see a picture of someone caught stealing, there’s an idea, a preconceived notion, that we are meant to project onto that image. And by placing the viewer on equal ground as the person in the image I ask people to investigate in themselves, the ideas we project onto others. Alongside the boundaries of individuals being dissolved in an act of public shame.
The question at the heart of this body of work is, 'How do we betray others as well as ourselves in order to participate in society and keep it functioning in its current state?'”
-Allen-Golder Carpenter
The photo collage consists of images from an ongoing ‘open source’ photo series, where I have been personally documenting, as well as receiving submitted examples of the phenomenon of what I call ‘walls of shame.’ Photo displays at establishments such as gas stations, convenience stores etc. that are made of security images of individuals caught stealing, put at the front of the store in an attempt to shame them. These ‘walls of shame’ are pictured on the curtain, with the faces of individuals cut out. For the installation, the faces from these images are taken and translated to a mosaic of 4 x 6 inch photographs, with different versions of each image, one clear which is later translated through various versions of visual censorship.
These images comprise half the photo installation, the other half will consist of images captured over the course of the exhibition, on a security camera in the gallery of visitors that enter the installation, when they ‘breach’ the security fence curtain.
The installation comes from a body of work that deals with the viewer / subject relationship, particularly as it relates to boundaries, transgression, and projection. When you see a picture of someone caught stealing, there’s an idea, a preconceived notion, that we are meant to project onto that image. And by placing the viewer on equal ground as the person in the image I ask people to investigate in themselves, the ideas we project onto others. Alongside the boundaries of individuals being dissolved in an act of public shame.
The question at the heart of this body of work is, 'How do we betray others as well as ourselves in order to participate in society and keep it functioning in its current state?'”
-Allen-Golder Carpenter