pink noise, 1995
I have always been drawn to the American sitcom Roseanne. Within popular culture her character seemed to represent a reverse momentum of trauma by transforming rage into humor, and adversity into potential.
As an installation pink noise consists of 5 slow motion video loops, presented as moving snapshots on five 4.5” black and white monitors encased in their original pink plastic bodies, arranged on a white-washed pine mantel attached to the gallery wall. A circular spotlight, on the floor of the installation in front of the mantel, positions the spectator as performer. Borrowed from brief segments of the opening credits, each loop represents a different chronology of Roseanne’s character. Though slightly changed with each season, the staging of the scene is always the same—a circular pan of the “dysfunctional” family sitting around the kitchen table, fading out with Roseanne throwing her head back in laughter. It is this moment that is looped, 3 seconds of laughter, slowed down, cropped close and filmed directly from the screen. pink noise depicts what Margaret Morse has called the “regenerative power of foolishness”, and hopefully incites it from the spectator. Pink noise, like white noise, describes the technological clatter that comprises our urban backdrop. The only difference being, pink noise is produced from the energy per octaves instead of frequencies, resulting in a sound with more body.
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pink noise, 1995
5 plastic pink monitors (b/w, 4.5" each), 5 VCR's, pine mantel, circular spotlight on floor.