Horos, 2006-2007 Limited edition self-shot photography, video, sound composition and canvas/charcoal interactive installation and performance.
Horos, 2006-2007
"Horos" in Greek means a "bound", "limit", "dance", "shrine" and "boundary stone" (in Plato's writings).
"In an ongoing dialogue with architectural, historical and natural environment, the artist delineates large-scale outdoor terrains by placing long white cotton sheets on the ground and filming the sites from her video camera suspended from a near-by rooftop. "Horos" is a meditation on the notion of place, change and embodiment in relation to architecture. It belongs to a series of works "Intervals" that Weiss executes around the world since 2003, mapping each chosen territory by the acts of sewing the fabric/image and creating an open environment that welcomes others to inhabit her large-scale public drawings-landscapes. Recent projects in that series in 2006 took place in a twelve-century castle in Trancoso, Portugal (curated by Facto Foundation and ASA, London) and at the Winter Garden of the World Financial Center, New York (curated by The Drawing Center, New York)." -- From the press release ("POZA", Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT)
In the summer of 2006 I lie on the pavement of MCC campus, listening to the sounds of environment. Passersby discover me as they walk around my body, captured by my camera suspended from a nearby rooftop. I record their sounds, their steps, the remote voices, whispers, perhaps the door opening, and their silence. I continue sound recording and photographing from the rooftop.
Several months later, in early November, I arrive back to the same site. Soft waves of cotton cover the concrete ground of the college's circular pathway leading from the central tower towards the rest of the MCC campus. I consciously choose the location and time of the year for the installation. I intend to interact with the usual in this area wind, to incorporate its natural force. I am interested in observing (through the camera lens, through my body) slight changes of the weather, changes of the light, usually more evident during fall season. Video camera is once again suspended from the rooftop recording the aerial view. I the video image the covered by the canvas terrain become a two-dimensional canvas ready to be marked.
It's raining. The sun randomly appears throughout the day. Volunteers come and go, helping me to saw together sheets of wet cotton. Later in the day I lie down and draw around my body, barefoot, with my eyes closed. The wind blows and undulates the fabric, which is held in place by multiple stones. The canvas feels wet from the rain. Chunks of graphite, charcoal and dry pigment are scattered around on the canvas. The wetness makes charcoal stains deeper and darker. Passersby join me at any point of this inhabitation and are invited to lie down in complete silence and to possible draw abstract traces around their silhouette. Horizontal body position, required inside the installation, is symbolically charged and physically intense, calling to mind states of passage such as baptism or initiation. In resulting series of self-shot photographs and self-shot video, the horizontal position of participants resembles a state of suspension or flight as our silhouettes are seen by the camera lens as if floating above them. The frequent and delicate moments of light change become later focal points in the resulting video piece.
"Horos" video and photography was based on site-specific ephemeral installation & performance at the Manchester Community College, MCC, part of "POZA", Real Art Ways, curated by Marek Bartelik.
