Forced Fields, 2008
5 channel video installation
video, balloons
dimensions variable

Nothing is more innocent and sincere than making cookies. It is a foundation for childhood that we do for holidays, rainy days and any time a sweet tooth calls. Forced Fields takes this simple activity and pushes it to its visual limits. This is a video installation that explores ideas about the pressures of daily life through the playful use of giant balloons and cookie dough. Using balloons, 3-5 feet in diameter, as an alternative material to project into, onto and around, the images transform into mesmerizing spheres of personal and psychological interaction. The balloons are thin, transparent membranes which are simultaneously delicate and explosive. The balloons actually hold the video images of our children creating their own universe by cutting out stars in cookie dough and the projections carry through the balloons and onto the walls of the space.