Equilibrium Installation at the National Exhibition 11, National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, 2025 Equilibrium This series is about how the reality we experience is a shifting, fragile and temporal existence and uses an installation of photographic images etched into overlapping sheets of sheer material to manifest that multiple states of reality. The things we take for granted today, like the color of the sea, the pure white sand of our beaches, the cruise ships full of visitors that arrive like clockwork….or the people we love, where we live, our future ecology – all these exist in a constant state of flux and will not be the same in the future. We can look back at our history and see where we have been, but the reality of missing trees, missing buildings, and missing people is harder to articulate. Each pair shows a different, but related circumstance.
Artist's Statement Hanging high from the ceiling, the 12 foot organza silk panels float gently on the movement of air as viewers walk through and around them. The pairs of images can be seen through each other from multiple angles and from each side, which shifts their meaning and impact. The fabric shimmers in the light, hiding and revealing parts of each images as the viewer changes their point of view. In short, the Equilibrium installation gives the audience an immersive experience of temporality through the literal fragility of the translucent image and the shifting nature of time and space as they change their angle of view and perception of the layered images. The layered images draw in the viewer through their beauty – the overlapping colors and the sheer translucent silk is visually seductive.
© All images by Douglas Barkey douglas barkey