S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
Image credits: Gordon Pellegrinetti.
The Installation is comprised of seven scorched wood periscopes placed along the perimeter of the room. The spectator gazes through each viewport set within the periscope face to glimpse a distorted architectural vignette within. Each vignette depicts some interior scene in which a level of 'high strangeness' is infused to establish an attitude of unease. Subjects include a basement listening station in which some sudden event has toppled a chair and triggered an alarm, a biology/ morgue lab in which a woman's shoe is placed before an operating theater, a house foyer where a secret door beneath a stair leads to some subterranean passage, a nuclear cooling tower 'gestating' in some hive-like structure, a chapel/ airplane cabin, an arcane storehouse of 'exotic' technologies, and an implied bedroom nighttime abduction scenario.
In addition to the charred periscope surfaces, each structure is laced in kiln-burnt pine tar at its base and viewport to enhance the odor. A droning audio track instantly demarcates the viewing room from the remaining gallery space.
The aim of the work was to create a sense of cognitive dissonance in which fictional, speculative, religious, or paranormal phenomena exist alongside the mundane and commonplace- yielding a reverberation of psychological doubt about the curent state of realities.
The title plays upon the acronym 'S.D.I.' which in my formative years represented the Reagan era weapons system called 'Strategic Defense Initiative' - also dubbed by the press as 'star wars' due to its connection to space-based missile technologies. In previous works I have played with the absurd notion that the 'invisible/ unknown enemies can be defended against by material means-much like the fall-out shelters of the Cold War-ultimately yielding a state of fear, unease, and paranoia. I view these agents of unease as conducting 'incursions' into our comfortable Post-Enlightenment sense of reality. Growing up in a suburban middle class household in the 70s/80s presented me with many challenges to my sense of comfort and security. These fears could be hatched from the realms of religion, superstition, paranormal, and real-world geopolitical tensions to create a hybrid and disorienting reality, where the possiblity existed for the intersection of these seemingly incompatible universes to (for a brief time) co-exist.
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions SDI Periscope Flash (Promotional Image)
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
Image credits: Gordon Pellegrinetti.
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions SDI Persicope (Promotional Image)
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
Image credits: Gordon Pellegrinetti.
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions Detail-SDI-1 Through Lens
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions Detail 'SDI-1: Sage Control'
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
Image credits: Gordon Pellegrinetti.
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions Detail 'SDI-2: Lt Col. Philip J. Corso United States Army Ret.'
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
Image credits: Gordon Pellegrinetti.
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions Detail 'SDI-3: The Navidson Record'
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
Image credits: Gordon Pellegrinetti.
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions Detail 'SDI-5: Travis Walton
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions Detail 'SDI-6: The Working Group'
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions Detail Double Periscope 'SDI-7: Swamp Gas / Weather Balloon'
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
Image credits: Gordon Pellegrinetti.
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions Detail 'SDI-7a Swamp Gas (For Budd Hopkins)'
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
S.even D.iminutive I.ncursions SDI-2 Showing Viewer / Installation
Burnt Russian Birch plywood, poplar framing, kiln-burnt pine tar, convex glass lens (architectural model housed within ea. periscope)
Periscope: 56 x H x 20-1/2 x W x 28 inches.
2015
Image credits: Gordon Pellegrinetti.