Sobell, Nina
Permanent URI for this collection
Digital access to this material is pending artist's approval. Materials may be viewed onsite at the Goldsen Archive, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Kroch Library, Cornell University.
I am concerned with notions of truth, and making invisible phenomena visible, while drawing attention to the nuances of communication and perception by gathering, recording and rendering it accessible in a visual form. There are many different layers in my work. When viewed through the lens of conceptual, performance and installation art, they bridge between interior, exterior, mental, physical and virtual realms. I also think of my work as abstract art, in the sense that the viewer recognizes abstract imagery as having an actual correlation to them, and can act to form a unity of consciousness of the embodiment of our selves. I am continually exploring notions of transformation, energy transfer, bridging the conscious and unconscious realms, and depicting the invisible visible through action and reaction. The results manifest themselves either as an action or object, and continue to live through extensive documentation. I see the process of creation as an integral part of the work, as important as the result. In this way, the audience, mentally and physically, actually becomes a part of the work. The resulting output is as diverse as the individuals who participate, the dynamics between them, and the way they choose to engage with it. Contributions to my genre: first MFA time-based thesis installation, was a pioneer of video performance and installation art, first live performance in the history of the Web, first Web performance and installation archives, first telerobotic webcam sculpture and installation, first graphical user interface for urban information on the Web.