beacon — Jeremiah Barber

JEREMIAH BARBER

Beacon
Custom mirroring pool, mirrors and armature, water, LEDs and controller
Public Installation at the Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Woodside CA
Installation dimensions 12’x10’x7’
2015

Beacon is a site-specific installation meant to be seen at night in total darkness. It consists of a reflective pool with a reclining bench above facing twelve mirrors, LED lamps and an electronic timer. The reflective pool is installed above the creek bed, with a rich soundscape of running water and the activity of owls and insects.

To encounter the work, small groups joined the artist on a night-hike through the Santa Cruz Mountains, arriving at a redwood grove along Harrington Creek. Viewers were then guided to lay on the bench in the installation in complete darkness and one at a time. When the lights come up, the viewer sees twenty-four reflections, half above and half below the water. Each is in fact a double reflection, bouncing off both mirror and water, and thus showing the viewer a vision of the self as others see her.

Explorers over the last three centuries have navigated dark sea waters aided by a sextant, which bounces light off of two mirrors. In Beacon the disruptable nature of self-reflection is sublimed by the coastal landscape—the wet pathways down the hillside, the rolling fog, the light fading on deer in the meadow.

Special thanks to the Djerassi staff, especially Margot Knight, Tom Shean, Celia Olsen and Alice Marshall.