Women in the Garden- Leap is a study after Monet’s 1866 “Women in the Garden” . Of particular interest to me is the difference in presence, posture, and movement of the bundled figures on the left vs the figure on the right. I became interested in her and her motion. She seems to operate in a different depth than the other three, unaware of her portrait being taken, focused on a vortex point that the painting hides. 

In exploring her movement, I found resemblence to Kusama’s narcissus garden and infinity rooms, as well as a likeness in dress to Kusama herself.  

Being interested in the compression and reversal of time that I believe occurs in the medium of performance, I choose to interpret this reference not as Kusama, the impressionist who uses Monet as her reference, but rather as Monet, the clairvoyant who anticipates Kusama before her time.  

The video tries to expose the fixed nature of the other three figures versus her ability to shift through planes. Her complete disappearance and frequent doubling imply the overlap of time, presence and absence that occur in the moment of performance. The gaps in the image reveal its flatness while she traverses into its depth and leaps through time.  

In the collage, a slight change in scale, posture and proximity to a whirling sky imply her access to a different world of movement than the others. 


Video
Collage