SONDRA PERRY, WET AND WAVY LOOKS – TYPHOON COMING ON, 2016
Video, rowing machine workstation, Eco styler gel, 5:43 min
“Using a water-resistant rowing machine filled with hair gel connected to three screen monitors, Sondra Perry’s 2016 Wet and Wavy – Typhoon coming on for a Three-Monitor Workstation engages the viewer’s body as a component of her piece. Sequential computer-generated images of a bright purple ocean open the piece. Using the Ocean Modifier software, Perry is able to simulate and distort ocean waves. Perry’s selection of purple as the ocean color corresponds to the color warning used in software indicating an error with the software.
Sondra’s innovative production was inspired when she encountered JMW Turner RA’s The Slave Ship. Painted in 1840 using oil on canvas, Turner’s piece depicts slave ship Captain Zong ordering 133 African slaves be thrown overboard in exchange for an insurance claim for “slaves lost at sea.” Inspired by a historic event in 1741, Perry blends digitally adapted images of Turner’s painting with her purple ocean. In taking portions of Turner’s sea, Perry distorts and animates the images to emulate a surface resembling skin or human flesh. The gruesome red and white imagery maintain the rolling wave motions in the purple ocean. The purple ocean is intercut with the image of Captain Zong’s massacre at fixed intervals.” - Digitalart21