Catapult
one media player, one video projector, window frames, chandelier, rotating motor, two-channel audio

Installed in a former military base across the street from the last Nike Missile site, Catapult uses immersive video projection to present the human body as both a weapon and a target.  The imagery references several historical uses of the body in warfare.  For example, during the battle of Kaffa the Italians occupied the city, and the Tartars, already infected with the black plague, catapulted their corpses over the ramparts, infecting the Italians who fled, carrying the disease to Europe.  A series of images (floating nude figures, ships, rats, and turkey vultures) are cast onto suspended window frames.  These dusty and decrepit windows both transmit and hold the projections, causing the images to multiply as they pass through the space.  In the back of the room and behind a glass-paneled door, an opulent glass chandelier rotates slowly, spilling light into the main space.  Catapult’s sound design combines and loops a dozen different performances of the opening bars of Strauss’ Blue Danube Waltz, augmenting the tension between the controlled and the chaotic through its endless introduction and postponement.

Project/Exhibition dates

Headlands Center for the Arts, 2005