TRAP/bat 1993
TRAP/bat
Video Installation by - John Sturgeon
Commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
for the MOMA Video Gallery - Curator: Barbara London
(Exhibition September-November, 1993)
TRAP/bat - is a sculptural video installation composed of six channels of pre-recorded video and one channel of live video. The primary cave-like image is the projector screen, which is a large flat abstracted surface of cut-out shapes emulating stalactite and stalagmite forms. A freeze frame, video image of the viewer is seen through the negative spaces in the cave/screen’s stalactite and stalagmite forms. This image has been trapped by a surveillance camera in the entry hall and inverted, like a bat, on a large rear screen monitor in the midst of the cave. Six video monitors hang from the ceiling and are on the floor, screen sideways (vertically), displaying computer graphic images of stalactite and stalagmite shapes set in video black. These computer graphic shapes contain video and computer animation imagery that emerge from the stalactite & stalagmite surfaces, revealing symbols of various social/cultural crises and international scenes of camera verité.
The content of the work is directed towards a symbolic healing, or an enlightenment to the metaphysical core of the current world predicament.
...The bat has positive aspects, most significantly it’s regulation of the insect population. In many societies (especially the Mezo-American), this mammal symbolizes metaphysical or ritual death and rebirth. The artist associates the hanging bat with the tarot card, the hanged man, who represents a link between the personality and the higher self. For Sturgeon, therefore, the bat is also a metaphor for psychological change.
Barbara London, curator
TRAP/bat, video installation commission
The Museum of Modern Art, 1993
The Museum of Modern Art, NYC - entrance signage
video document: https://vimeo.com/29283835
Interactive Video Installation by - John Sturgeon
Commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
for the MOMA Video Gallery - Curator: Barbara London
(Exhibition September-November, 1993)
The intent of TRAP/bat centers on creating a ritual space of initiation (a symbolic death and rebirth) for an experience of realization by the viewer. The content of the work is directed towards a symbolic healing or enlightenment to the metaphysical core of the current world predicament. The core aspect primary to this piece is that proclivity of the human mind to project externally that which is denied or un-integrated internally, the consequences of which continually truncate and separate the self from a larger and more inclusive view of itself and its integration with the world. This projection process projects that which is perceived as not self onto the dreaded - OTHER. And it is this phenomenon that in part creates or manifests as our physical & psychological sicknesses and social and cultural ills - racism, war, poverty, homelessness, social/sexual abuse, etc. The internal response extends even to the extent of rejecting our own body, our own emotional and sexual being.
The viewer is fully enveloped in a dark cave construction that has video projected on its screenal stalactites and stalagmites. Many of the images are of cultural extremes—war, police actions, riots, homelessness, and general destruction, but these phenomena do not fit neatly into polarized boxes. In fact, even in these times of horror, there are moments of liberation due to the vast multidimensional perspective that this installation provides.
It’s monumental, full of action, a riot of semiosis, but it is only just that—a simulacrum that actually ties one down into a little room where, as the soundtrack suggests, there is no consciousness, or as Plato believed, where there is no sun to light the world and erase the shadows. As if this situation isn’t disturbing enough, Sturgeon intensifies the moment by adding images of bats flying around in frenzy. While there is order to these configurations, it still conjures a feeling of chaos indicative of a very nervous culture that is always flying blind.
Steven Kurtz, C.A.E.
construction view - cave projection screen
TRAP/bat
Interactive Sculptural Video Installation by - John Sturgeon
Commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
for the MOMA Video Gallery - Curator: Barbara London
(Exhibition September-November 1993)
TRAP/bat’s Interactive Elements:
The primary cave-like image is the projector screen, which is a large flat, designed as abstracted, cutout shapes of closely situated stalactite and stalagmite forms. Seen through the negative spaces in the cave/screen's stalactite and stalagmite forms is a freeze-frame, video image of the viewer. This image has been trapped by a surveillance camera within the bat-totem in the entry hall and - inverted, like a bat - on a large rear screen monitor amid the cave.
Several video monitors hang from the ceiling and are on the floor, screen sideways, vertically elongated, displaying computer graphic images of stalactite and stalagmite shapes set in video black. These computer graphic shapes contain video and computer animation imagery that are texture mapped inside the surfaces, opening to reveal symbols of various social/cultural crises.
TRAP/bat is Sturgeon’s personal arrangement of Plato’s cave. The viewer is fully enveloped in a dark cave construction that has video projected on (the screen’s) stalactites and stalagmites. Many of the images are of cultural extremes—war, police actions, riots, homelessness, and general destruction, but these phenomena do not fit neatly into polarized boxes. In fact, even in these times of horror, there are moments of liberation due to the vast multidimensional perspective that this installation provides.
In addition, Sturgeon has added images of his head and shoulders hanging upside down in bat-like repose and does the same with images of people who are in the space. Viewers are photographed as they enter the cave in an act of Sturgeon’s expanding recognition of individuation. Sturgeon constructs a perfect world prison in the platonic tradition (although no one could ever call Sturgeon a Platonist).
It’s monumental, full of action, a riot of semiosis, but it is only just that—a simulacrum that actually ties one down into a little room where, as the soundtrack suggests, there is no consciousness, or as Plato believed, where there is no sun to light the world and erase the shadows. As if this situation isn’t disturbing enough, Sturgeon intensifies the moment by adding images of bats flying around in frenzy. While there is order to these configurations, it still conjures a feeling of chaos indicative of a very nervous culture that is always flying blind.
- Steven Kurtz, C.A.E.
