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4000 Space Odessey

Ovoid(2013)
By Grace Mokalapa
Oval wood, PVA black paint and florescent lighting
Untitled(2014)
By Grace Mokalapa.Projected perspective image

These two installations that I've created, introduce a different relationship to space and the lack thereof. Working with physical space, my challenge was to engage with different the forms of physical spaces to which the work would be displayed. Still, with an interest in empty space, spaces beyond the physical, I wanted to represent these ideas in a form an installation. At this stage I was interested phenomenology, architecture and astronomy. I was particularly interested in the Oculus and Black Holes and how these two have different effects and connotations of vastness or emptiness on its subjects. I wanted to critique the understanding of "self" against an infinite and indefinable void, that escapes any and all reasoning. Both these installations that I have worked on represent voids or non- spaces that are both equally transcendental in different ways. The Untilled installation, a perspective image projected on a wall, represents a positive transition from the one space (reality/my studio) into the next (a fictional space), due to its overwhelming presence of light. Each line in this installation has been accounted for in relation to the actual perspective of the room it is displayed in. In Ovoid, the installation consists of an object that blocks light in an already dark room. This installation has an opposite effect; its transition from one state of reality (the room), into the next (the black hole/void/the unknown) is a negative one. The darkness of this space introduces the feeling of a mysterious presence/force, engulfing the viewer, while the presence of light in Untitled evokes a feeling of transcendence, exaltation. Both these installations challenge the viewer to look beyond their understanding the world around them, asking the viewer to reconstruct/reimagine their ideas of "self" in a "reality" unknown to their own.

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