CAMPOSCURO
[ Dark Field ]
Multichannel video
10 - 15 minutes variable
Dimensions Variable
2018
In Camposcuro, the viewer is drawn into a mesmerizing world of dark spaces and silent hillsides, populated by a lone traveler. Presented through a series of television sets, reminiscent of a closed-circuit TV system, the scenes evoke a dreamlike abandonment that encourages the viewer to contemplate the nature of persistent human travel and its cycle of continuous movement.
As the viewer follows the single character through each scene, a sense of movement emerges, but it is the faceless repetition interspersed with empty spaces that infers a broader tale of human migration. The recurring elements, such as a bike, encourage the inference of occluded events and create a sense of urgency and foreboding.
The presentation of this installation implies a threat to this cycle of migration: the scenes are shot in low contrast black-and-white, evoking nightfall, and displayed across multiple screens that evoke surveillance. This panopticon-like presentation encourages participation in the watching of the traveler but also highlights the limitations of our understanding of migration and displacement.
The use of striped clothing and a side bag in the installation links it to the artist's previous work and evokes a connection to contemporary issues surrounding migration and border crossing. The "dark fields" of Camposcuro take on a deeper significance in this context, highlighting the challenges and dangers faced by those who must move, by choice or necessity.
In the end, Camposcuro is a haunting and thought-provoking installation that invites the viewer to contemplate the nature of migration, displacement, and human movement. It challenges us to consider the complexities of these issues and our role in shaping the world we inhabit.
EXHIBITIONS
CAMPOSCURO
Curated by Claudia Matos
David Castillo Gallery, Miami - FL
February 11 - April 7, 2021
Captured in black-and-white across open fields, forests, and rural landscapes, Edison Peñafiel’s Camposcuro offers surreal and poetic meditations on the ever-present nature of surveillance during our time. The multi-channel video piece follows a singular, anonymous figure whose face is always turned away from the camera; this figure—a woman in a flowing skirt—stands, walks, runs, and rides a bicycle across these sceneries. There are questions that linger in the experience of this piece as to this person’s identity, her relationship to these landscapes, and the reasons why the camera might be following. The camera lingers on this figure despite her slow movements or moments of inaction, and there is an ominous quality to the way in which she is watched, recorded, and captured as an image. The soundscape of this piece reinforces a sense of unease; its languorous tones steadily rise and fall, indicative of impending action that never quite crests or comes to fruition. The solitary figure of Camposcuro retains her anonymity in the face of continuous surveillance, possibly unaware that she is the subject of the camera’s gaze; a commentary, perhaps, about how we all exist within countless images—CCTV feeds, the backgrounds of strangers’ photos, and others—over which we lack control. Camposcuro focuses in on the potentially dark terrains of our highly mediatized society.
In this presentation of Camposcuro, the piece takes on a totemic form, presented on three, wall-mounted monitors stacked vertically on one wall. The effect is a frontal sensory experience that visually confronts its viewer.
FLORIDA BIENNIAL
Curated by Laura Marsh & Juried by Sarah Fritchey
Art and Culture Center, Hollywood, FL
September 14 - October 21, 2018
