︎ ANIKA TODD
From Above ︎︎︎
There is a contemporary principle of property law that was first articulated in Europe over 800 years ago: “Whoever’s is the soil, it is theirs all the way to Heaven and all the way to Hell.” This translates cleanly into current US law as, “[the landowner] owns at least as much of the space above the ground as he can occupy, in connection with the land.
Video
Sculpture/Installation
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These two video works, Stimulus and Self Portrait, were shot with a camera on a string of balloons flying in policed air space. They center on our relationship with the aerial god's-eye-view, a viewpoint historically developed for surveillance and/or military operations. The works seek to articulate a more connective method of looking from above. Instead of a drone, a camera flies over the streets of Manhattan on a cluster of balloons; the resulting footage presents a divergent aerial perspective, one that is precarious, humble, and tethered to the ground.
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To Hold Water
Materials: Water traveling on rope, a pump, three-channel video installation
Flux Factory, NYC
2020
To Hold Water is a sculptural installation built around the Self Portrait video. The two-channel video is suspended in space, accompanied by a sculpture that pumps water from the floor of
the gallery to the ceiling -- holding a subtle
stream of water in constant motion.
Materials: Water traveling on rope, a pump, three-channel video installation
Flux Factory, NYC
2020
To Hold Water is a sculptural installation built around the Self Portrait video. The two-channel video is suspended in space, accompanied by a sculpture that pumps water from the floor of
the gallery to the ceiling -- holding a subtle
stream of water in constant motion.
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Streetlight For Poet
40’ x 60’
Streetlight, security mirror, reflective paint
Austin, TX
2020
Using a security mirror, parking-lot line paint, and a streetlamp, this work reconfigures materials historically used to organize and surveille public space. Rethinking/ reclaiming the God’s Eye View.
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All The Way to Heaven
40’’ x 60’’
Black contractor plastic, tape, string
Brooklyn, NY
2021
Image from a recent workshop at Flux Factory where I taught participants to build solar powered hot air balloons out of black contractor plastic. Together we made balloons that became monumental sculptures, lifted by the sun into airspace.
40’’ x 60’’
Black contractor plastic, tape, string
Brooklyn, NY
2021
Image from a recent workshop at Flux Factory where I taught participants to build solar powered hot air balloons out of black contractor plastic. Together we made balloons that became monumental sculptures, lifted by the sun into airspace.
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