Umbral is derived from the Latin umbra, which means shadow and also "threshold" in Spanish. In El Umbral, two ten-foot video towers are placed in close proximity to imply a portal or gateway. This structure, conceived as a union of opposites, is at once a nexus between the masculine and feminine, past and future, fear and its absolution. Shrouded atmospheric formations, architectural remnants and shattered structures caught in a perpetual exploding decay exist together in a continuous oscillating state of veiling and revealing. Disembodied eyes flock through the debris, dart furtively or rise and fall like mechanistic clockwork observing any and everyone who passes.
While El Umbral pays homage to twentieth century surrealism, the work primarily exists as a psychological anti-monument to the deepening surveillance state and the shadows of events past that cloud our way forward. The layered visual vocabulary, combining both photographic figurative elements and a variety of synthetic digital imaging techniques, draws freely from both eastern and western traditions. The work utilizes a networked digital system to generate both sound and image in real-time. This enables the viewers to influence the structuring and behavior of both the audio and visual composition as they pass to and fro between the monitor towers or “gate-posts”.