Paul Chan

Play Doh

2013

Nonprojections features video projectors that are linked to jury-rigged, power-conducting shoes. The projectors’ lenses flicker and strobe as if outputting videos without an corresponding surface for image. Holding their contents within, these would-be projections remain illegible phantoms, replacing a passive experience of moving images with one that Chan characterises as “inner-directed, like the ghostly visual impressions that one conjures up in one’s mind when reading a good (or bad) book.” The seemingly absurd title plays on the names of Greek philosophers including Socrates and Plato, suggesting a link to the allegory of the cave—a parable of human perception that exhorts us to acknowledge the illusion of sensory information and embrace a truer understanding of reality.

Medium

Cords, Shoes, Concrete, Video Projectors, Digital Video (Color, Silent)

Dimensions

410.2 x 152.4cm