Nicking the Never
Installation Introduction, 2006

Exploring the relatively uncharted territory of the youthful female imagination, psycho-sexual fantasy and desire, Marina Zurkow’s Nicking the Never can best be described as exploded cinema, an immersive environment of eye-popping color, kaleidoscopic imagery and reverberating sound. Deriving its structure from the Tibetan Buddhist Wheel of Existence, Nicking the Never explores states of selfhood and the psychological realm of the human mind with imagery that vividly and graphically illustrates the human struggle with need, jealously, complacence, aggression, desire and ego.

The exhibition takes shape as a multi-linear installation of screen-based narratives featuring a single female protagonist. We follow this character through a collection of animated allegories exposing highs and lows, growth and struggle, fear and forcefulness, confusion and calm. The space is configured with the use of floating, transparent screens illuminating contained, continuously repeating moments in time that merge and meld in the cavernous gallery space. The largest screen serves as a sort of hub, portraying the main character in a restive state. Throughout the gallery, the character is portrayed in six states of self: Guzzle (need), Smash (aggression), Nuzzle (desire), Bash (jealousy), Buoy (complacence) and Dash (ego).

The layout of the installation assures that the overriding narrative is created by chance, depending solely on the navigation of the viewer through the labyrinth of screens. The overlapping imagery and sound results in an infinitely variable narrative structure that changes with each moment that passes. In this imaginary world, as in life, circumstances shift abruptly and disruptions abound. The seeming chaos is punctuated by moments of quiet that parallel the cyclical nature of human existence. Visually and aurally sublime, Nicking the Never gives shape to the inner workings of the imagination by exposing, in stunning, stark detail, that which we find in ourselves.

Diane Barber
Visual Arts Director
Diverse Works

 

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