you are here | 2002 | NYC
Neon white sign | words | fader
“The moving about that the city multiplies and concentrates makes the city itself an immense social experience of lacking a place…”
Michel de Certeau
you are here alludes to presence, however it refers to disappearance. The neon white sign with its impermanent light, suggests in its discontinuity a state of in between. Insert in the hectic pace of everyday life you are here, attempts to open up a space for reflection and awareness of our existence.
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who what where | 2002
Banff | Alberta | Canada
Strings of pennants hang camouflaged in the visual fabric of everyday life.
Suspended from a fine line, apparently light in their physicality, the flags are loaded with the weight of words.
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who what where | 2003
Urban intervention
Montreal | Canada
Festive strings of colorful pennants were simultaneously installed in seven strategic sites around the city of Montreal. Emblazoned with text these flags intervened in the routine comings and goings of passers-by affecting the way they perceive themselves and the environment.
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who what where | FLOAT | 2005
Socrates Sculpture Park
“Originally produced for a group of neighborhoods in Montreal, who what where is a poetic text posing questions around the collective possibilities of identity, place, and mobility. Adapted for Float, Arias has reproduced the work in aesthetic harmony with the site. On each weekend of Float, the first through third lines of the poem will be individually paired with the last line. In its entirety, it reads, Who would I be if I could be/Where would I go if I could go/What would I say if I had a voice/Where would you go now that you know”
Sara Reisman
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perfect lovers (leave me-hug me) | 2004
white neon signs | words | dimmer
Two white neon words, are placed side by side. While their lights fade off and on in a synchronized loop, the meaning of the words simultaneously contradict each other in a push/ pull movement. While leave me fades on, hug me fades off in a discontinuous tempo, struggling together between sameness and differentiation.
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I can hear your heart beat | 2004
neon white signs affixed to trees
Affixed to the trunks of trees, neon white words seem to float in space; enticing the viewer to slow down and experience their inner meaning. The text renders visible the private unseen, exposing in the public a moment of vulnerability/intimacy.The lights are turned on during the day, off during the night It is daytime, the lights on, mark an element of disruption in ordinary circumstances.
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who what where | Soft Sites | 2006
Institute of Contemporary Art | Philadelphia
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voices off | 2007
segments of white neon light | 255 x 94 inches
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