In A Station, Petals2011

A video installation created for rear-screen projection onto a window facing the street. The image is created from hundreds of stills that were sourced from television shows that I used to watch online with some regularity. The television images have been cropped and re-sized, and at first I enjoyed targeting small corners of the frame or scene and, from the practice of looking very closely, I noticed how race and gender stereotypes have been revised and renewed in the shorthand of television: white people always seem to be in trouble, and are usually in charge; black people embody moral responsibility and superior strength of character but are always in service of some kind, helping white people out of their bad situations; Asians are strong, too, but rather than having strong moral character, they are shown as having strong intellectual abilities and keen insights into a given situation. Asian men are now buff and hunky, with bulging arms to match their giant brains. All of the women are still beautiful, but now they may also be somewhat complicated emotionally; white men are still on top, but all of the others are catching up. I believe they will catch up only to be reassigned new stereotypes, all in the service of pop culture and television drama. Keeping it unreal.