Timelessness Unboxing
Perhaps the epitome of our consumer culture is that some people make, and publicly post online, videos of themselves unboxing something they have purchased. Acquiring something has become exciting, a buzz that we need to repeat. So now more than ever we need to be still, to feel unhurried, to experience timelessness.
Artist and Principal Lecturer Mark Bolland has been exploring these issues in recent work. A large cardboard box frames a screen displaying video. Looking deep into the box, the viewer is cut off from immediate surroundings, re-experiencing the cave from which Mark shot the video footage showing on the screen. The camera and the viewer are still, but the video shows the mesmerizing movement of light and of trees.
The work provides a window into a timeless world and an opportunity to still ourselves and invest time in the necessary work of reverie.