Claude van Lingen’s 1000 Years from Now Installation and Collaborative Performance is a reflection on the complex times in which we live and the future that awaits us.
In this incarnation of his 1000 Years from Now theme broadcast TV images will be projected onto the gallery wall and a number of narrow panels on which images from print media have been collaged. These panels will be flanked by slivers of mirror and blank strips in a configuration of approximately 8’ h x 16’ w x 4’ d. Lists, comprised of names of the more than 4000 casualties of the Iraq War will be displayed on the wall opposite this installation. A 3’ x 6’ blank space is to be left within the lists and during the evening Claude and viewers will write names of some of the casualties into this space.
The mass of information that is projected, superimposed, and reflected from the mirrors onto the walls, floor, ceiling, and viewers—combined with the simultaneous writing of the names of casualties—are intended to create a physically, mentally, and emotionally charged environment. On the formal level, Cubist concepts of the fracturing of space and time are brought into the present by the introduction of contemporary media, a nexus that invites the viewer to become engaged on many levels.
