Dye sublimation print on polyester
5 x 8 feet (1.5 x 2.4 meters)
2023
Molí de Ca l'Oliver, Sant Quintí de Mediona, Spain

There Is Sanity at Sea Level is a textile installation activated by the setting sun, which casts shadows on and streams through a digitally-altered photo-print. This banner in turn is mounted from the cement frame of a bridge at the former site of an ancient Catalonian paper-making mill known as Molí de Ca l'Oliver.

Within the photo-based composition, semi-circular glass lenses float against an amorphous background. The glass forms, known as Fresnel lenses, are dissociated from their origins in a harbor lighthouse, instead hovering over the babble of water in a stream below. The colors of the fabric banner resonate with the colors of stalks of bamboo, maple leaves, and old stones situated along the riverbank.

The use of images of Fresnel lenses relates to themes of madness and the discordant claims of rationalism and progress. The lenses are one of the first historic applications of wave theory, the scientific theory that light behaves as both a wave and a particle; this theory marks the beginning of quantum physics as distinct from Newtonian physics, initiating understandings of non-visible phenomena in physics, which operate at vastly large and infinitesimally small scales.

At one time, Fresnel lenses were placed in baths of liquid mercury in order to turn without energy loss or friction; although scientific in principle, they are elaborately designed for spectacle and toured throughout the U.S. and Europe at international expositions before being put into use; when installed along coastlines and harbors, they were used for both military and economic advantage, designated with specific codes and designed to signal in a series of incoherent bursts of light which designated their position to sailors and marines. The seascapes memorialized by artists like J.M.W. Turner and Théodore Géricault captured this moment in history.

As such, the imagery in this installation fits within a larger exploration of the history of optics and the properties of light, its materiality, and its utility toward truth claims across various cultural and geopolitical events.

This work was produced while in residence at Blue Cactus Artist Residency in August 2023.