Outer Darkness

2023

Installation at 1698 Galisteo

Hotel furniture, silver-plated copper, live-feed of a spider crab aquarium tank, molded plastic, burled American black walnut, plaster, felt, polyester, quartz chips, found image.

Ever since HBO streaming became MAX, things have felt cluttered and cheap. A sudden glut of offbrand shows has collapsed any apparent organizational structure and the platform’s purpose has become opaque. These things matter when you’re living in a hotel. In sterile surroundings, you need to maintain specificity in your personal interfaces, so you don’t come fully untethered from meaning. Otherwise, it’s easy to start inventing an epiphany or, if one doesn’t come, falling swiftly into some abyss.

It’s not a nice hotel, but it’s not bad either. We’re here for my partner’s work, which is the reason places like this exist. It’s off a highway, next to a medical center, in a city in the middle of the desert where the sun turns everything bleak after 9 am. But there’s a pool at least, and a free breakfast. There are a lot of cars in the parking lot during the day and I suspect most people are inside their rooms with the shades drawn. They must be paying for the premium internet… read full exhibition text here