Raw clay, grass seed, surveillance camera eyes, surveillance video. Alligator dimensions: outdoor 1.5′ x 25′ x 25′, indoor 1.5′ x 4′ x 8′
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[read project statement]
Expecting Helen is a site-specific installation comprised of five life-sized alligators created in an exterior courtyard and one life-sized alligator created inside the museum. Each alligator is fitted with two surveillance camera eyes. Footage from all twelve cameras is projected behind the alligator in the museum. The audience first encounters the exterior courtyard alligators not realizing, until they see the interior footage, that the alligators are recording and projecting their movements. While the audience is able to see themselves in the real time footage from the interior alligator, they can only imagine what was captured when they were outside and who was watching based on the current footage. The cameras also capture the changing condition of the alligators, made of clay, dirt, and grass seed, as they grow, dry and deteriorate.
This piece is about the comfort and discomfort of being watched, wanted and expected. It is about having one’s movements monitored and recorded. It is about the assumption that we are only spectators.