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THE DILATION OF TIME (formerly known as WE ARE TIME IS) 2018

22 in. x 33 in. (print)

Edition of 3

2018

Framed

Title, date, edition and signature in pencil verso

16 in. x 24 in. (print)

Edition of 3

2018

Framed

Title, date, edition and signature in pencil verso

THE DILATION OF TIME (formerly known as We Are Time Is) began as a mock-up for a book of photographs in 2015. In 2016 I starting raising money for the book with generous support from friends Mara Zepeda and Andrew Berns (yet unpublished). In 2017 a selection of images from the series was published by Harper’s Magazine. May through August 2018, the premier exhibition of this body of work lived among mathematicians, scientists, programmers, graphic designers, writers, custodians, educators, administrators, librarians, board members, caterers - the entire community at the Santa Fe Institute. 

The work is currently available for installation and/or acquisition. The installation includes 16 limited edition framed photographs. The installation presents the work in pairs and it’s encouraged to purchase/install the work in pairs, but not necessary. The frames are sealed poplar, full bleed, no mat, with a poplar floater, handmade by Ben Joyce, master framer and beloved uncle to the artist. The edition is printed by Rush Creek Editions, Santa Fe, NM.  

At the Santa Fe Institute the photographs were presented on the occasion of the 2018 SFI Science Board/Trustee Symposium “The Complexity of Time”. Filmmaker Godfrey Reggio gave the keynote address for the event and Thomas Ashcraft and I presented our work concurrently as the concluding notes to the weekend-long symposium on Time.

The Santa Fe Institute is the preeminent research center exploring the frontiers of complex systems of science with a rich and devoted relationship to the arts and humanities.  

STATEMENT

We Are Time Is (2018) brings together a collection of color photographs depicting two scenarios side by side: on the left is a picture taken between 2012-2016 during commercial flights showing a partial view of a person sitting in the window seat on an airplane; on the right is a picture of a parked car carrying a large, sunlit and broken wall clock in its backseat, something I walked by on my way to the studio one morning. When the two scenarios are paired they create an invitation to experience dissonance and harmony, and Time and Space.  

The public space of an airplane is complicated: it is uncomfortable, intimate, tolerated, feared, beloved, practical, emotional. My photographs play into the anonymity of people traveling in airplanes. People in the photographs are detached from almost everything having to do with their personality, their identity, their history, and at times, it’s even hard to understand where they are located (the interior of the airplane being abstracted by photographic expressions of depth of field and exposure). In the photograph a person is simply there, in space, reflecting sunlight. The acknowledgment and possibility of their “there-ness” and presence, void of identity, is liberating to me. 

Concurrently, the wall clock in the car no longer keeps time and is experienced as a symbol cuing me (you, the viewer) to see and think about all of the other things in the photograph that express Time. For example, time told by the hands on the clock is different than time marked by the changing angle of sunlight reaching the clock. Time for the tree is different than it is for the occasional person walking across the street in the background. Time for the apartment buildings reflecting in the car window is different than time represented by the broken windshield. Time for the vehicle registration sticker is different than it is for the dead tree branch dropping into the picture frame. 

The people on the airplane sense time differently than time is sensed on the ground. The morning sunlight reaching the clock through the car window is similar to the angle of sunlight reaching the people through the airplane windows. We don’t see the faces of the people in the airplanes. We see the face of the clock in the car. The clock commands presence as undeniably as the living, breathing bodies sitting in the airplanes. The body is a clock. 

There are countless conditions that cloud an awareness of ‘there-ness’ or ‘here-ness’ in relation to ourselves and our surroundings. In looking at the photographs of the people in the airplanes I recognize myself being alive and present. In looking at the photographs of the car with the broken wall clock I recognize time in action despite an appearance of stasis. My ambivalence and fascination toward embodiment and time passing come together in this body of work as the simple declaration, We Are Time Is. 

May - July 2018 

We Are Time Is

Santa Fe Institute

Santa Fe, New Mexico

A collection of photographs installed on the occasion of the 2018 SFI Science Board/Trustee Symposium on “The Complexity of Time”