Holes – Installation and Performance
hole
/həʊl/
Noun: hole; plural noun: holes 1.a hollow place in a solid body or surface. “the dog had dug a hole in the ground” synonyms: pit, ditch, trench, cavity, crater, depression, hollow; “they were digging a hole in the ground” an aperture passing through something. synonyms: opening, aperture, gap, space, orifice, slot, vent, outlet, chink, breach, break, crack, leak, rift, rupture; puncture, perforation, cut, incision, split, gash, rent, slit, cleft, crevice, fissure; spyhole, peephole, keyhole;
2. a place or position that needs to be filled because someone or something is no longer there. “she is missed terribly and her death has left a hole in all our lives” a shortcoming, weakness, or flaw in a plan, argument, etc. “intriguing as it sounds, the theory is full of holes” synonyms:flaw, fault, defect, weakness, weak point, shortcoming, inconsistency, discrepancy, loophole, error, mistake, fallacy “a recent article highlighted some holes in their argument”
3. an unpleasant place. “this town is an awful hole” 4.slang terminology for sex “Did you get your hole last night”
verb to make holes in
Holes – Installation and Performance
“There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”- Leonard Cohen
The Holes project stemmed from an investigation into light in art; particularly as practised by the artist James Turrell. At a basic level, to experience or understand light one needs eye(s); a lens over a hole like a camera obscura that lets the light into the dark matter of our skulls. It is through the openings of our eyes, these portals, these doors of perception that we observe our world, through which we read, through which we learn. And when we close them we sleep and we dream. Thus the genesis for exploring holes literally and metaphorically was born.
Within a purpose built room I proceeded to hand-drill holes in the walls to let more and more light into the darkened space. Holes as enlightenment? Trepanning. Air holes. Blow holes. This drilling could also be interpreted in a Freudian way. A metaphor for the sex act, a literal penetration, calling to mind all of the holes of the human body and the function of holes. Points of entry and exit. The joy of sex. Life giving birth. Death dealing bullet holes. Wooden stakes. A holy space in the sacred sense can mean a whole space and an unviolated space except for divine presence. Around this room several plaster boxes with holes may or may not contain something. Funerary receptacles? One of the white boxes is different, through a hole it emits a strangely hypnotic light. On closer examination could it be a blizzard of blue white random meaninglessness or the static of the cosmos?* Television? Postmodernism? To the ying of all of the light holes, a black hole yang; in the form of an ‘oil well’, is cut into the floor of the room. On the very first day of the exhibition some unknown and curious soul stepped into this genuine oil well and then proceeded to trail their guilty black footprints across the pristine white floor. Accidental of course, but a stark metaphor for the pitfalls of human activity; entrapment to oil, pollution, and the effect our carbon footprint has on climate change. [End]
*Static or Noise, in analog video and television, is a random dot pixel pattern of static displayed when no transmission signal is obtained by the antenna receiver of television sets and other display devices. The random pattern superimposed on the picture, visible as a random flicker of “dots” or “snow”, is the result of electronic noise and radiated electromagnetic noise accidentally picked up by the antenna. This effect is most commonly seen with analog TV sets or blank VHS tapes.
There are many sources of electromagnetic noise which cause the characteristic display patterns of static. Atmospheric sources of noise are the most ubiquitous, and include electromagnetic signals prompted by cosmic microwave background radiation,[1] or more localized radio wave noise from nearby electronic devices.[2]
The display device itself is also a source of noise, due in part to thermal noise produced by the inner electronics. Most of this noise comes from the first transistor the antenna is attached to.[2]
Due to the algorithmic functioning of a digital television set’s electronic circuitry and the inherent quantization of its screen, the “snow” seen on digital TV is less random. Most modern televisions automatically change to a blue screen or turn to standby after some time if static is present. text from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_(video)
James F.Moore 