Altar to Our Lady of the Shining Silver Sun

Sometimes the process of losing touch with reality is not an abrupt change–sometimes the slide into psychosis can be more subtle and may not even be noticeable. The interaction between the viewer and the installation reflects this: The language of the shrine is one of slow fades over harder, more “shocking” cuts, of glows, of sounds mixing together. As there is subject matter that may be a bit disturbing (someone stabbing himself with a crucifix, for example), the “shock factor” should be more in keeping with a sort of gestalt effect–a slow realization. Sounds used with The Altar to Our Lady of the Shining Silver Sun are somewhat pleasing (to draw people in), are evocative of a past time (such as 19th Century Mexico, the “heyday” of the retablo art form), and deal with elements of memory and events depicted in the retablos. Sounds include birds chirping, metals clinging, bells, and scratchy television static and found sounds in Spanish and English.

One of the main focuses of The Altar to Our Lady of the Shining Silver Sun is for someone who is not mentally ill to be able to comprehend what sometimes is the dual nature of visions, how two realities can exist simultaneously, how one thing can actually be two things at the same time, without being in conflict of each other. In the case of psychotic disorders, an “enhanced” reality does not necessarily have to take the place of accepted reality. That being said, the project seeks to draw people in with what seems to be normal, only to have a moment of revelation where the “second lives” of everyday objects become apparent. This “reveal” should quietly celebrate the transcendentalism of the everyday object into something sacred. In addition, by putting different stories or retablos, some ecstatic in nature and others nightmarish, next to each other, one may begin to form an idea of what it may be like to experience such dramatic highs and lows so close to each other. In this case, the question of interactivity is informed (Why make it interactive?) by the overall narrative of the project and by its intentions and theme.

Animating the retablos as people approach them also serves to highlight the theme of an “enhanced reality” or of objects and items bearing a “second life” or an infused aura. The animations are simple and repeatable in a trance-like way so that they may fit in with each other as a colorful moving collage. For example, in one retablo about an incident in a club, a spinning tornado of sound and light whirls around to show what it feels when like someone is controlling the lights and sound with their mind, while most other objects have little or no movement.