537 Roosevelt, December 2006

A time-lapse video was made at 537 Roosevelt Avenue of two men removing graffiti from the wall in July 2007. The demonstration began by projecting this video onto the specific site where the activity had taken place.




Other images, such as foliage and water, were then blended with the original image. Because the top portion of the projection was lost, I decided to aim the projector at the southern section of the building.




In this way, the projection was much more integrated into the site. The original plan to project documented activity from the location back onto the location was an interesting idea to explore, however, it felt limited in its potential to transcend the elements of time and space as I had been anticipating.

From that point, I tried many different images from my library of video loops. The one that worked the best was an animation I had made from a book of Indian mandala art. The color and movement created a visual affect that was able to transform the specifics of the time and especially the space of the site.





The kernel of my initial thought still existed. That idea to project the painters I had videotaped onto the site they had painted had evolved on a conceptual level, through a process of trial and error, from those painters paining the wall into me paining the wall. They had painted white paint over graffiti while I had painted with color and light.

Krysztof Wodizco is an artist who uses recognizable figurative images in his site-specific projections to set up concrete allegorical relationships with the physical architecture and meaning of the site. What I have done with this particular projection can, on one hand, be seen in counterpoint to Wodizco's method. The non-representational imagery changes the surface of the building into a 20' tall moving abstract mural. The aesthetic experience of light, color, shape, rhythm, and movement could be enjoyed for its formal qualities alone.

On the other hand, it can actually be seen from a symbolic vantage point of positive, dynamic energy emerging in the south-Southtown neighborhood of San Antonio, which is slowly going through a process of regeneration. The action of the painters reclaiming the 537 Roosevelt building from signs of neglect (graffiti) is conceptually mirrored in my action of broadcasting light and color, bringing life and energy to the site.