Teacup and Rock

Project Statement

Observation, as well as the roles of technology and photography in the ways we observe, all play a key role in much of my art making. Teacup and Rock, manifests from two converging creative interests. The first being an ongoing curiosity in looking at the things we collect; while the second is an interest in technology and photographic representation of how meaning can be made from these objects. Each video depicts a single object on a clean white background. The object rotates one degree each second and the videos loop continuously. These rotating videos borrow visual aesthetics from advertising tropes seen at car shows, jewelry stores, and online 360-degree product views.

The slow rotation of the objects simultaneously allows for a high level of scrutiny, showing a view from 360-degrees, while at the same time disallowing the control or ability to pause or reflect for any length of time on each perspective. There is tension between the seemingly objective ability to examine all sides of the object and the inability to see the entire object at once. For me, this tension is analogous to that embedded in many descriptive or documentary photographs; images made as records of observation but from a very specific point of view.

Work on this page:

Paho Mann, Teacup Version 4, 4k looping video, 2016

Paho Mann, Rock, 4k looping video, 2016

Installation view, Teacup, Still Life, Landscape, Kresge Gallery, Lyon College, Batesville, AR.