Visibility is always contingent. There must be light, a medium to redirect that light to a perceiver and, if the perceiver has the sensory means, a visual perception and experience will take place. In the case of color perception, there exist far more contingencies upon which a viewer’s experience depends, including both the spectral content of the light source and the spectral reflectance of the object, as well as the capacity of the viewer’s visual system to sense it all. Put all this together and you get an ever-changing phantasmagoria of entanglements between subject and object. In the case of glass, as well as LCD screens, there exist phenomena the eye cannot see without the aid of additional media.

Parceling the Visible and the Invisible presents conditions in which the invisible may become visible through the introduction of polarized light. When emitted through un-annealed glass by a de-constructed LCD screen and seen again through additional layers of polarizing film, the polarized light reveals the interior mechanical stress within the glass in the form of spectral colors not otherwise visible. The work presents optical phenomena not usually encountered that speak to the innate qualities of the glass, as well as to the interplay between object and viewer and the dependance on contingent circumstances for the interior state of the glass to come to light.

This work aims to provoke a more engaged way of seeing and to make evident the notion that seeing something invisible often only requires a bit of patience, understanding, and a shift of perspective.

Un-annealed glass, LCD screen, polarizing film

18” x 18” x 72”

2023