"Abbie: Abandoned campsite" exists in the liminal space between diorama and real life. Throughout the interactive installation there are objects and spaces that slowly define Abbie's personality. "Abbie: Abandoned campsite" in inspired by Allan Kaprow's "Yard" and similarly attempts to situate the viewer into an adolescent state of jovial delight and curiosity.  A major component to this installation is its accessibility, just as the reader of a book becomes the active storyteller. The reader's job is to imagine the character's voice, or project themselves into the role of adventurer, explorer, lover, etc.. Throughout the installation are objects waiting to be activated. The wagon/sleeping apparatus is the bench/ binding to the "Abbie book;" by sitting upon it the viewer is positioned in a way that reveals a hybrid space. From this position the projections on the wall form one site, which is in contradiction to the separate site locations. This hybridization emphasizes the fragmentation of what can be perceived as real and chronicle. Below the bed is a small cubbie that holds tokens, fifteen 5.56mm loose rounds, a worn in copy of Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" protected by a respirator storage bag, supplies and text collected by Abbie. To the right the scent of burnt wood emanates from the small hemispherical grill, an M16a service rifle propped up by a branch and a play-school tape player/recorder. (This tape player holds the record of Abbie's diary entries.)

Just as Robert Smithson used mirrors and photographs as site/non-sites, I am using the projection of landscapes, dirt under the viewer's feet, and the built environment of this installation to further juxtapose site/non-site, real/fiction. This reference to a real space, with its own time and history, lends an aura of authenticity to the "Abbie" theatre. It is this aura/ghost that differs from reading a book. The objects become reservoirs replenishing/triggering the viewer's own experiences. This ghost is the presence of a projected history of nature, camping, and adolescence.

Comment on this page