AIRPLAYERS: MULTIPLEA translation of Armstrong's site-specific installations into a bookwork consisting of the AIRPLAYERS book, a video tape documenting the artist's AIRPLAYER X installation, and a sculptural environment that "performs" in a 90 second cycle of light, color, and sound.
AIRPLAYERS BOOK (illustrated)Comprised of a silkscreened cover on an optical lens which provides a three-dimensional image, and printed pages on ultra translucent paper and white vellum. AIRPLAYERS also contains a self-powered light-up centerfold. The texts, computer printouts and other documentation relate the artistŐs conceptual thinking to the technology through which her works are realized. Included is an essay by art critic Carlo McCormick.
A unique environment is created from silicon forms, sandblasted plastic, lenses, graphite and acrylic paint Its light sources are white incandescent bulbs and red ultra-bright LEDs, and the sound is a recording of AIRPLAYER X, digitized and stored in an EPROM. It is removable and rechargeable, accompanied by an owner's manual produced by the artist.
The piece is arranged to transform the viewer into a participant who unfolds, discloses and activates the work. The components are contained in a handcrafted vinyl box, with an image on the front cover and with silkscreened title on front cover and spine. On the inside front cover is an original sandblasted drawing on plastic.
This work makes reference to different types of landscapes, and our feelings toward them: oceans, mountains, swamps; views from outer space and through microscopes; and of the inside of the body.
New York: Willis, Locker & Owens, 1990; 28 x 33 x 14 cm, edition of 65 variable copies; signed and numbered. $3500
FRAGILE CONNECTIONSDescription: Contains photocopied pages of interrelated artwork, photographs and text from and about the artist's works on the structure and essence of the human body and the body of nature. As the translucent pages are turned, images become superimposed over one another so that the ideas are related to each other in sequence. An enigmatic and expressive statement about our collective past and future.
New York, 1992; 28 x 11.5 cm, edition of 200 variable copies, signed and numbered. $25
MESSAGES FROM HOMEDescription: A provocative work intended as a catalogue for an exhibition which never existed, the book's cover - a vinyl-covered sheet of paper pulp and rust - gives MESSAGES FROM HOME the feeling of a relic or a historical document. Found images, photographs and photo collages, often layered upon one another, work together as a kind of dark journey into which viewers are drawn; the experience is truly different each time this journey is embarked upon. The book contains an essay by critic Cassandra Langer and is held in an individual sandblasted plastic slip case.
New York, 1994; 23 x 29 cm, edition of 40 variable copies, signed & numbered. $145
INTERIORSDescription: The long rectangular book involves very thin layers of pulp on vinyl over layers of photos of sculptural details on acetate, which creates deep yet translucent interior spaces. As the vinyl pages are turned, images become superimposed over one another creating a deep interior space.
New York, 1997; 10 x 32 cm, edition of 45 variable copies, signed & numbered. (forthcoming)
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