This installation explores the blurring distinctions between the digital and the material worlds in an effort to discover the specific location of spiritual relevance.
Projected upon the far wall is a video loop of the artist's avatar from the Xbox game Saint's Row, who is seen calmly treading water.
In the corner of the video is a graphic common to many videogames -- a HUD, or head's up display - which shows a top-down "radar scope" view of the player's location and nearby surroundings, including icons representing potential enemies, goals, power-up's and other important in-game elements.
Placed on a low table in the center of the room is a rendering of the HUD in colored sand which includes many icons and elements of the projected HUD. This sand rendering is made by hand on location, and lasts only as long as the exhibition -- it cannot be moved or preserved.
This impermanence serves several goals. It reflects the temporary nature of life, and the search for deeper meaning in cultural signs, signifiers and maps. And it challenges the concept "The map is not the Territory". How does that statement resonate in today's mediascape, in which we visit countless digital territories, reference maps that signify maps, and have deeply fulfilling personal experiences in virtual space? Are there any original territories left, or has literally everything become a signifier for something else, an infinite loop of maps leading to other maps eventually leading back to the first -but not necessarily the original -- map.
