An Identity Metaphor, 2017

This was my first time creating with video. I was thinking through using QR codes to transmit information to the viewer; how I could take this capitalist and cooperate tool and use it for my own message, one that promoted alternative histories, narratives and artistic thought. The installation of the piece was simple. It consisted of a shelf with a reflective material that held a disassembled beaded QR code. The reflective material mirrored the QR code attached to the wall-mounted shelf. The material connection of the beaded QR code on the wall and the pile of beads and string on the shelf led viewers to connect the two. When looking from the correct angle viewers would see the QR code on the wall reflected in the pile of beads on the shelf. Once the QR code was scanned viewers were led to an online video. The video started with an undoing of the QR code, cut from the sides and pulled apart. Once the entire code was unraveled it was then re-beaded. I was interested in making a video that was self-reflective, both of the piece itself but also of myself as the maker. I wanted to speak to the making of the beaded object but also of the unraveling and destruction of it. I view this piece as a metaphor for building an identity, taking the pieces you already have, cutting it up, taking out the bits that are no longer needed, rearranging them and beading them back together.

Photo credit: Alexa Crude