Passing Through
Passing Through is a photo-based installation that I produced for the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center and later re-installed at the van Straaten Gallery in Denver. The first exhibition was for three months and the second was for two months. These images are a chronological record of the second installation over the two-month exhibition period.
To create the work, I photographed the forearms and upturned hands of 247 people. The body of images was accumulated through random encounters over several months with strangers, acquaintances, close friends, and family. 
I chose to photograph the upturned palm as it can signify various and opposing states of being, such as support, resignation, willingness, frustration. The hand is also our "device of action," the tool through which we control our lives.
Each image was printed on a transparent polyester-based material, edged with balsa wood, and balanced horizontally when suspended from the center. 
Small brass grommets were inserted in the center of each image, and the lines that attached to jumbo helium-filled Mylar balloons were threaded through the grommets. "Columns" of four to seven images were suspended from groups of three or four balloons. The number of images in each column depended upon the weight of the images and the lift capacity of the balloons.
My purpose was to create a dynamic installation that I had no control over after it was installed. I incorporated chance and random occurrences as elements, allowing them to play significant roles in determining what the piece would become over time. I set the initial balance of each column and from that point the piece evolved from moment to moment on its own.
As viewers passed through the space, their movement displaced air and activated the room, causing the images to rotate horizontally and settle into new positions. Occasionally viewers would spin the images. Through their actions, they became active participants in the work's evolution.
Also over time, helium escaped at different rates from each balloon. Depending on the weight of the images and the amount of helium lost, each column lowered, the hands settled down upon one another, and different visual experiences developed throughout the exhibition.
An additional dynamic was the sun's movement throughout each day, casting shadows of the hands and edges onto the floor and walls. The shadows grew in length and intensity, and then diminished to nothing as the sun set. For a period of time each afternoon, the floating shadows created a sensation similar to being under water.