PIA VAN GELDER
/ WORK / CREATIVE WORK:
TV SOLARIUM, 2025Interactive installation. Commissioned and exhibited by Drill Hall Gallery for Light Source
Audio-video, TVs, bed, electronics
Installation photographs of TV Solarium, 2025
This audio video installation considers light beyond the ocular centric renderings by contemplating light as something that is perceived and absorbed by the entire body. Appropriating the design of the tanning bed, viewers are invited to lie down and enclose themselves in the light of a dual monitor video work. The video includes audio frequencies from a modular synthesiser that produce synchronous visual patterns across the screen. In the foreground are vocal instructions in the style of self hypnosis and relaxation audio tapes.
The work uses the television as the key to an apocryphal wellness device, one that harkens back to the histories of light therapy and sanatorium culture, bringing to the fore our long held concerns about the detrimental consequences of our proximity to, and time with screens while positioning the television within an apparatus of wellness culture.
Installation photographs of TV Solarium, 2025