Mina Young
Aug 09 - Sept 03
'I always suspected I was watching TV instead of living life'
I always suspected I was watching TV instead of living life (Andy Warhol) Mina's most recent body of work, explores the culture of the "screen", and our habit of relating to it by browsing, sampling and reading between texts. It addresses concepts of viewing and perception, narrative, intertextuality, celebrity, the significance of location in personal history and popular culture, and the make-up of fantasy and reality.
"I assume that there is a boundary between reality and fantasy, a surface that allows visual representation, simulation and reinterpretation to occur. I refer to this as the "screen". The screen is a place where images and sounds form complete or partial narratives in the context of its creator, viewer and the mass audience.
"I use the screen as a metaphor to describe our sensory perception of the information of which we derive meanings - the all-immersive world of modern media messages. I explore the idea that the screen can either obscure perception, or act as a magic door, engaging the viewer in a transformational dialogue.
"The contents of the screen leaks beyond its boundaries. At one extreme, humans in our culture walk around inside an all enveloping screen. Continuous discourses are thrown at us. We have to make sense of this experience, and our typical interactions, the moments when we actively make "texts", are characterised by a heavy filtering of this material that is on tap. Browsing is the new expected mode of information consumption.
The exhibition consists
of large-format photographic panels, installed in a continuous band
15 metres long. The glossy surfaces represent the "screen",
the boundary where the struggle between fantasy and reality takes place.
By presenting the work in a highly manufactured glossy format, I thought
I could reference the glamorous language of advertising, fashion and
film, and mimic the transitory clarity of dreams".
