the measurement of personal and ecological failure

Lux Æterna Asssessment was a mixed media installation that was featured in the Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, Japan in 2010. The work involved a multi-screen projection of a video/animation piece accompanied by a live choir. I created the video, animation, and composed the choral music between 2009-2010. The installation was on display between August through December of 2010 in Japan. Tens of thousands of visitors saw the installation, as it was part of a wide International art event.

These color drawings were some of the original “stills” used in part of the animation for Lux Æterna Asssessment; there were several hundred in total. Fourteen are here, shown in rough sequence. Most of the stills that are missing from the sequence are currently in different collections.

The particular scene represented here is of a woman ascending from a bathtub.

The installation Lux Æterna Asssessment involved animated images and vocal music suggesting poetic connections of personal and environmental turmoil and disaster. The imagery included representations of the oil spill disasters in the Gulf, nuclear-power and telecommunications technology; and gave visions of the volatile sources of big energy and wild dangers inherent within.

Assessment, here, is a measurement of risk; risk as that which is utterly unknowable. Lux Æterna is Latin for eternal light which first emerged from religious texts and is well known as a Requiem Chant.

A bathing suit clad young woman is overwhelmed with the
accumulation of feelings of personal responsibly. Just as the world’s situation of savage unpredictability has no Protector, she slowly assumes a near fetal position.

A bathing suit in the bath presents her self-concern and vulnerability.

With the recent disasters in Japan, these thoughts are more disturbing.