twilight

Doug Aitken uses technology to manipulate the viewer’s experience of time, space, and memory, employing a wide range of media, including photography, sculpture, video, sound, and installation. Praised for capturing the essence of contemporary life, Aitken skillfully depicts experiences of motion and speed. Aitken’s twilight, however, is centered on stillness and slowness. Bringing strange tidings from a not-so-distant past, the sculpture of an old pay telephone is enthroned on an acrylic pedestal and cast in translucent resin. As the viewer approaches, the glowing pay phone pulses in response to movements. The gallery space becomes an immersive environment, presenting the phone as a ghost or strange totem communicating with all those who are drawn to it. Here, the pay phone appears as a hazy memory, both woefully serious and wryly comic.