Animalia Chordata

Animalia Chordata comes from the Latin nomenclature for human beings. Six video-projected people representing a range of typologies – from the Wall Street businessman to the precocious little girl – are “trapped” inside glass volumes of varying shapes (including a sinuous Cognac bottle and a chemistry beaker), much like insects are captured in jars. The projection through two panes of glass transforms the traditional two-dimensional video into three-dimensional holographic images.

One projector concurrently plays six different videos, meticulously stitched together as a single composite video, on a ten-minute loop. In their natural state, the projected people stand, sit, waver and lean. But when they feel “threatened” by a viewer approaching the work, they react in a defensive manner.