Distance Between Things
The genesis of Gyan-gyee - The Distance Between Things was a roll of black and white film. Taken on a Mexican beach at sunset, the images sat unused for several years. In developing a method of contact printing onto silk tissue, I experimented with these floating figures in the water and on the beach. Cutting and combining pieces of the original shots, I continued to add figures from the River Ganges when I returned from India. The timing of this series is haunting. Completed in 2004, the first were shown at Winston Wachter Gallery in Seattle. The opening was the week following the tsunami. We were inundated with images of heads floating in water and survivors standing on the shore looking out to a sea that betrayed them. Following in August 2005 was Katrina, flooding the lives and homes of New Orleans and Mississippi. Once again the images rang too true, a portent of the changing world.
2005 | Catherine Eaton Skinner