 |
A
project for Ricardo Castro's 2nd year undergraduate studio, the
premise was to design a 'device' that evokes the myth of Icarus. In
this case, I designed and built an interpretive viewing device; a pine
4x4 with a keyhole viewer (elongating perspective) installed at (my)
eye level, two cantilevered sections of 1/4 inch flatbar, two steel cylindrical
sections holding a wax candle and a latex condom filled with water.
Formally making references to the arc lamp of a film projector, the
device represented a frozen moment in a filmic cycle. Taking from
Duchamp's idea of suspended desire, it evokes the latent erotic
tension of the myth of Icarus: Icarus, in love with the sun god Apollo,
flies with his waxen wings towards his beloved. Apollo, offended by
this human arrogance, melts the wings of Icarus and casts him to his
death in the sea below. The waters of the sea also represent the
re-absorption of Icarus into the waters of his birth, as his mother
was a sea-nymph. |
