︎ 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. Instead of a drone, the works present 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.





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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.