Artist Statement

"Building / Unbuilding Machine explores the idea of redundancy, specifically in relation to Photography. As analog Photography is replaced by digital imaging much of the tactility previously inherent in the photographic process disappears. There is a distancing from the mechanics of Photography with images being constructed virtually instead of being crafted by hand. Cameras are almost self-sufficient and our experience of photographs predominantly screen based. It is this distancing between body and mechanism that Building / Unbuilding Machine seeks to address. To see archaic materials resurrected and reanimated is somehow enticing and the opportunity to observe and understand the way in which something functions is exciting.  

In Building / Unbuilding Machine one is confronted with an overbuilt physical apparatus that works continuously to “build” a virtual structure. The completed structure exists only for a moment before it begins to be dismantled. Thus the desire to see the completed structure is never fully satisfied as one doesn’t necessarily realize the structure is complete until it after it has begun deconstruction. This sense of incompleteness, of being perpetually in progress, is central to the work. The focus is on the process rather than the end result, the physical act of making and remaking, of doing and undoing. The idea of animation is deconstructed as well, with the illusion of motion in the projected images continuously interrupted by the noise and movement of the slide projectors, reinforcing the animation’s dependence on the still image. 
 
Futility and repetition also characterize Building / Unbuilding Machine. There is a desire to show and event repeated despite the futility of an act that can never extend or develop beyond itself. The projected, photographed structure is built from nothing and then returns to nothing and then begins anew." (Page, 2009)

Artist Bio

Lindsay Page is a Canadian interdisciplinary artist working primarily in photography and video installation. She received her BFA from Ryerson University, Toronto (2003) and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2006). Her work has been exhibited internationally and has  appeared in publications including Carte Blanche (2006) and Camera Austria (Spring 2007) and Flash Forward (2008).  She is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the Society for Photographic Education Award and grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council. She lives and works in Toronto.

For Building / Unbuilding Machine, Lindsay is grateful for the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council and the technical assistance of Rob Cruickshank, Derrick Piens and Dan Miller.