Sur face series (2009)

Sur face (Paper) 2009
53 second loop
This is a series of video experiments that I did while thinking about two things: the relationship between an image and the object in the world that it is of  (in this case my face), and the relationship between an image and the surface on which it appears. That surface, so necessary for the image's existence, seems both fragile and impenetrable. I can't break through the image surface, but I can act on it.
Margot Quan Knight 2009

Sur face (Bubbles), 2009
1 min 20 sec. loop
Sometimes simple gestures are the most elegant. Think of the emotive qualities of a line drawing by Matisse or Miro or a sculpture by Calder. Knight takes the child like activity of blowing bubbles and captures herself in that activity. The play of light refracts off the surface adding an extra dimensional layer to this piece.

Sur face (Glass) 2009
35 second loop
Knight places a clear pane of glass between herself and the camera then proceeds to mash up her face against the glass. What briefly appears are the plastic distortions of face on glass. Surrealistically expanding and contracting, the face mirrors the visual vocabulary and trajectory of Picasso's portraiture.

Sur face (Glass) 2009
35 second loop
The end of this loop, Knight steps away from the glass to reveal a ghost like image made of the oils that are on everyone's face. Revealed for only a moment, the remainder should be considered a drawing. Here is the clearest demonstration of why museums do not let you touch the art.

Sur face (Fog) 2009
4 min 16 sec. loop
Press you nose against a window and you will see condensation. Knight takes this process further to slowly fade in and out the image. The piece becomes a metaphor for the ephemeral nature of human existence. The haunting gaze as Knight stares with great concentration will remain burned into your retina forever.

Sur face (Water) 2009
4 minute loop
Mythology has always carried stories of self reflection in water. Knight adds a primal element by actually drinking the pool of water and thus reduces the reflective surface making the image slowly disappear. Evocative of the early 19th century painter Flandran this piece is very romantic in its intentions.

Sur face (Mirrors) 2009
3 min 14 sec. loop
Infinity is often represented by two mirrors facing each other. Knight takes a stack of mirrors and removes them one by one. Combined in a seamless loop, she achieves an infinite activity. Jacques Louis David placed a mirror in front of his Intervention of the Sabine Women painting so that the viewer could put themselves into the painting. By the angle of the reflection, Knight puts herself into that infinite feedback loop.

Also in the New Media Gallery is a piece that is impossible to photograph. Are You There 2009
12 minutes 3 sec. loop

Are You There is a video animation made up of hundreds of low-res photographs taken with a digital camera. A series of sleeping men's faces materialize out of swirling pixilated darkness. I took the photographs in very low light, so the digital camera created some randomly placed pixels or digital noise.  When I line up the photos one after another in a video timeline, the random placement of the noise pixels makes the faces appear to pulsate or move. Some of the photographs are of real men and others are photographs of post-mortem photographs from the 1800's. I thought about this piece while lying in bed, unable to see the face next to mine in the dark. In reading group we recently discussed Moyra Davey's book Notes on Photography and Accident. Davey recounts photographer Zoe Leonard's inability to document the subtle paintings of Agnes Martin: she [Leonard] describes photographing the paintings over and over, and the difficulty of it: all she can see is the dust in her viewfinder.  The camera gets in the way of what it is trying to record. Marshall McLuhan talked about this a long time ago (the medium is the message). I am interested in our straining: the camera's rooo roo rooo as it tries to focus in the dark, and the human strain to pull the message out of the medium, to find a familiar face among the pixels.
Margot Quan Knight

Sur face opened April 16th and will run through May 30, at 911 Media Arts Center [9th and Harrison] . Gallery Hours are Noon to 6 pm Tuesday through Saturday or by appointment. 911 Seattle Media Arts Center