12 Speed
2008, Archrival pigment print on fiber base paper, each 124 x 171 cm, 12 works
Pop items reminiscent of the things that might be found in the room of a young girl—headphones, a bag of junk food, a glass of milk, a toy made out of beads—are displayed on a pink table against a pink backdrop. These self-consciously kitsch objects are, however, arranged with a solemnity suggesting a classical still life in Western painting and are set in the middle of the forest of Fontainebleau. This can be seen in the reflection of the trees in mirror placed in the center of the composition. The only difference in the 12 photographs that make up each of the two sets (one in gelatin silver and one in ink-jet printing) is a slight change in the angle of the mirror, which provides a subtly different view of the reflected forest. Though at first inspection the photos appear to be identical, the shifting position of the mirror, like a moving radar dish, creates a sequence that communicates the larger context. The graffiti-style sign and writing stand for “eternity,” recalling the eternal return of Friedrich Nietzsche, in which a single instant in the infinite progress of time is repeated indefinitely.