Floor moving, doors opening and closing, a constant barrage of strangers coming in and out… The Common Ground elevator project considers these fleeting public interactions and takes them to the next level.
The project derived from a series of performances which took place in seven different public elevators in Little Rock, Arkansas in the fall of 2016. The performance sessions involved the artist painting multiple floors of a building from a single vantage point within an operating elevator. Each session was recorded and lasted approximately eight hours. The project’s installation contains a set of portraits with a low-fi naturalistic sensibility, painted from photographic stills taken from the project’s video footage. The selection of small panels were painted on site and record the impressions of each floor as the elevator doors opened. The time-lapse video captures the movements and passenger interaction within the elevators.
Passenger Portraits (painted from footage), Oil on linen, 24 x 36 in
Floor Impressions from 8-hour performance sessions, Oil on panel, 6 x 8 in, 8 x 10 in
Photography still installation, metallic boxes, photographs from video stills, 6 in x 4 ft wooden board
Common Ground (temporary installation) NHIA Winter Residency 2017
Tessa Davidson 