The Fourth Space

-The Fourth Space -
a Video Installation by Cecilia Dougherty
+
Sound Installation by Aleksei Stevens

Oct 3 - Nov 7 2010
PARTICIPANT, INC. NYC

THE FOURTH SPACE
by Cecilia Dougherty

THE FOURTH SPACE is the title of a new four-channel video installation shot in New York, Chicago, New Haven, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and Baltimore.The theme is space/place/architecture/proprioception/home. My thoughts on the topic: from obsessive desire for a well designed home of my own with a meticulously planned interior, to finding true joy that springs from the freedom to wander, unfettered and unattached - a nomad was I.

The video is silent and is accompanied by a sound installation by composer Aleksei Stevens. Video and sound run together throughout the show - separate, and yet simultaneous and connected.

OTHER VIDEOS INCLUDE:

TETRAGRAMMATON (2-channel, 2010: 23:00) --
In 2008 I began to videotape places and spaces arbitrarily, not 100% certain of what I was looking for, or if I was even looking for anything. I was at Brighton Beach in Brooklyn one day and was reminded of the 1973 video by Frank Gillette called Tetragrammaton, a gorgeous soft video shot on reel to reel, depicting scenes at a beach - sky, sun, surf, sand; long shots, close ups, and a swinging camera movement that tried to take in the whole scene at once. Occasionally, bells sound, to remind the viewer that the beach is a spritual place
.
The title refers to an archaic Hebrew word that is formed by the four letters (YHWH) representing the name of the god, a name that cannot be spoken aloud, and a word that only a few people from each generation are taught to pronounce. Frank Gillette's video is about the sea, the sky, the beach and the passing of time. I went back to the beach with my old Nokia 5103 cell phone to shoot my response to Gillette. The idea of the quotidian became significant and renewed.

THE THIRD INTERVAL (2-channel, 2010, 8:40) --
Named for Paul Virilio's obsessions with speed, the Internet, the human place on the electronic bullet train. Shot with the same Nokia cell phone, and mixed with Apple's GarageBand software, this is a low-tech homage to all the lives that are lived in the in-between spaces of our ever-forming age of communication over/under-load. An excerpt appears here.

THE THIRD SPACE (single-channel, 2009, 27:05)
This is the video that began to pull together the idea of the quotidian and the idea of the remarkable - our remarkable ability to maneuver through the spaces offered by the earth's geography, city planning, and human event. An excerpt can be found here.

THE SCENOGRAPHY (single-channel miniature, 2010, 26:34, silent)
A brief description and excerpt appears on this page, next column. This was a fun piece to construct, if I can use that word for something that required no sets, no camera, no real place at all to create. The place is virtual, the piece remains in the fantasy realm, but speaks, nonetheless to and about the real.