About - The Course of a Distant Empire
The Course of a Distant Empire
The Course of a Distant Empire visualizes the tension of our present historical situation by collapsing antagonistic acts from past, present and future into single images, setting them in a cyclical format, and implying their repetition. Acts are made, others cancel them. The goals of one person impede those of another. Progress is made, but immediately encounters an obstacle or an equally regressive act. Mobility becomes impossible; and in its place, a migration towards the poles of decadence and destruction serves as a substitute.
Consistent with previous exhibitions, Senetchko created an all-encompassing sensory installation whose central element were 5 large scale, classically framed paintings. Winsor Gallery was transformed to accommodate the works and create the necessary environment. The gallery space was painted black and concealed from the front entrance by floor-to-ceiling black velvet curtains, providing viewers with an initial reveal of the suite, and an intimate atmosphere in which to view the pictures. A central mechanical mobile (built by Senetchko) rotated 20 iPhones hung in a parabola pattern echoing the mountain range presented in the paintings. The mobile completed a complete revolution every 25 minutes, the same amount of time the video and audio file played by each phone took to complete one full cycle. Each phone showed looping panoramic videos taken by Senetchko over the past decade during hikes in the Canadian Rocky Mountains which were set to TS Eliot’s reading of his 1922 Wasteland. At the completion of each recitation, the video and audio would repeat. The cycle repeated indefinitely.
The combined elements of the installation created an atmosphere of circularity, repetition, opulence, and unease.