Joan Truckenbrod
Against the Current
Salmon swim up-stream against the current with incredible energy and strength as they return from the ocean to spawn in the lake of their birth. During this journey their environment transforms from salt water to fresh water. Their bodies change shape and they reduce their intake of food or stop eating during their passage through the streams, jumping up waterfalls along the way. This journey in their cycle of life inspired this video installation that includes video of salmon runs synthesized with a body tumbling in water, all projected into a hospital bed.
Her book, The Paradoxical Object: Video Film Sculpture, explores the idea that video sculpture creates unique time-based objects with their own behaviors, stories and sound. Available at Amazon.com.
Not only are we part of that natural world, in the sense that we live in natural forms, but we live with natural processes. Our life is like the cycle of the salmon, or the cycle of the trees. These natural processes we experience outside of us, are also part of us.
My objective is to engage the audience to examine their own sense of being a part of the natural world.