Portrait of a Viewer

This installation was a first on many levels.  It was the first attempt to create an environment for the viewer to enter, as well as one of the first performance pieces created by Matthew Linton. 

What we see here are images of the original mock up for installation.  Matthew constructed a small room to be installed in the gallery.  The 8 x 4 foot room consisted of 11 x 14 inch, black and white photographs of people holding various cameras.  These images were printed at a one to one ratio and mounted at the artist’s eye level.  One of the walls contained a space for the artist to stand behind that would place him at the same level as the photographs.  At this spot, there was an opening in the wall that allowed the artist to see into the installation area.  Matthew stood motionless, dressed in black with white face paint.  In his hands, he held a Polaroid 600 camera.  The room contained a “soundtrack” of camera shutters going off… hundreds of exposures every few minutes.  The space was lit by a strobe light that simulated the camera flash repeatedly firing.  As viewers entered the room (one at a time), they were confronted by the artwork objectifying them.  As viewers explored the installation, Matthew would photograph them and allow the Polaroid images to fall into the space.  At this point, viewers could either take the image away as a souvenir or leave the image as evidence of their participation.