For the 'sensate skins' responsive installation, I prepared a transformation video from a series of still photos of J and arbutus trees in Vancouver. The videos were projected onto the lycra skin panels during the awakened state of the piece, as the interactors passed through the space. They showed slow transformations from tree (bark) to human (skin). Before the start of the transformation, while the installation was in a dormant state, the interactors could hear the haunting sound of a lone shakuhachi flute.
'lighthard' above shows the transformation process at a point half-way through the video where the peeling skin of the arbutus tree is superimposed on J's trunk... layers of skin peel slowly to reveal sensuous, colourful textures... trunk on trunk, one form becoming the other. The lone dormant tree is thus awakened and embodied, given a human form.
When an image has texture and is slightly out of focus, it seems to invite us to touch with our eyes, to visually caress the image space, its lines and textures. It is like seduction, I guess. I was interested in exploring this visual tactile quality and evoking a complicity between tree and human. I've always been intrigued by the representation of the human body.
