№ 1–2:

There Is Sanity at Sea Level
Pair of dye sublimation prints on fabric
Each: 8 x 5 feet (2.4 x 1.5 meters)
2018

№ 3–4:

Shibboleths for the Sun: Cloak Yourself in Scarlet
Digital print on aluminum
Dimensions variable
2018

№ 5–6:

Shibboleths for the Sun: A Helmet of Pith and Sola
Digital prints on aluminum
Dimensions variable
2018

The prints on aluminum and fabric in this series use digital cloning to remix historical tools for vision, rendering them as kaleidoscopic meditations on the histories of vision, photography, and surveillance.

They reference the curvilinear forms of Fresnel lenses, the compact lenses used for lighthouses and once the most cutting-edge technology behind maritime navigation. During the Napoleonic period in France, lighthouse lenses underwent continuous redesign, rapidly changing shape alongside the progressing science of optics. Each newly produced lens adapted to fit the most recent theories on the physical behavior of light. A morphing collage of concentric circles, facets and arcs, the glass lenses appear to be as much objects of the rococo as of a rationalist scientific process.

The titles borrow from a series of superstitions common among British colonists in Kenya and Tanzania, who distrusted the supposedly dangerous, vertical rays of the equatorial sun. The higher your altitude the more likely that the sun’s rays would pierce the skull, leading to madness. Thus, "there is sanity at sea level." Other superstitions regulated the color and layering of clothing to guard against solar radiation, with men and women lining their clothes with scarlet cloth, donning heavy flannel cummerbunds, and wearing multiple and double-brimmed hats. The images emphasize this fascination with the color red as well as a deeper blue representing its more shadowy, aquatic counterpart.

Installed at R/SF Projects, San Francisco, California