On Resonance in Contemporary Site-Specific Projection Art

Abstract

While rupture has been a generative form of political intervention within art, ‘On Resonance in Contemporary Site-Specific Projection Art’ proposes that an equally necessary element connecting aesthetics and politics is art's desire to forge connections with the provisional community of the audience. Through a consideration of the recent large-scale exhibit ‘Land|Slide: Possible Futures,’ author Shana MacDonald explores examples of contemporary site-specific projection art that formally seek a sense resonance within the viewer. The author specifically considers how the politics of suburbanization, colonization and the loss of cultural histories are negotiated in the work of Phil Hoffman, Julie Nagam, Dave Colangelo and Patricio Davila. The article argues these works encourage a productive unfixing of the borders between media and spaces, effectively encouraging embodied, intersubjective engagements between art and audience. The article considers how each of the pieces develops complex visual structures related intimately to the site of the exhibition, an open air heritage museum situated within a rapidly developing suburban environment. The author examines the performative structures of the architectural screens in each artist's work, and the specific relationship each holds to the heritage museum and to the concept of ‘the line’. The article claims that these small gestures of connection and collaboration between object, screen, site, and viewer pose an important counterpoint to threats of aesthetic co-optation under neoliberalism.