Sunburned Curtains

Over the past year, I have become fascinated with the camera obscura and its capacity to superimpose one reality upon another; allowing the viewer to be in two places simultaneously. Secluded in my family’s home, I covered up a large window in my bedroom with black cardboard and carved a hole into it, enabling the landscape outside to burn its way in. Adjusting slowly, my eyes began to follow any glimmer of luminosity on my walls, and the room started to glow with a moving image.  The camera obscura has been used as a tool by artists throughout history to make the exterior world a stencil for their images. Projecting itself, the landscape plays a direct role in creating the artwork. I experience living in the rooms differently now that they have become cameras. Through trial and error, I have been exploring ways of capturing images of the outside world as they hover inside, in harmony or in contrast within domestic spaces. In the series Sunburned Curtains, I have transformed multiple rooms in my family’s home to create suspenseful narratives and whimsical environments that complicate visual perception and stir the viewer’s imagination.