Transversal, 1994

This artwork takes the form of a dimly lit hallway in the basement of an old theatre building in Windsor. This 8-foot-long and eight-foot-tall hallway links two other dimly lit spaces with separate artworks in each. To access these site-specific works viewers first had to find their way down a crumbling cement staircase. The furnace room maintained a sweltering temperature was enclosed with drywall to form this hallway piece.

Transversal functions as a transitional space that both scans and transforms viewers while they pass through a dime’s width floor to ceiling slit of red light (1,000-watt heat bulb suspended behind the wall produced this effect). Hidden behind the drywall, with the intense slit of light, the loud furnace kicks on at regular intervals startling participants as they pass through. The spaces are hot, muggy and difficult to see until your eyes adjust to the darkness. Would be viewers become participants that are forced to slow down and reorient themselves to an inhospitable space which they have little control over. Participants become silent and take on a reverent tone as they cautiously move through the space. Each body is bathed from head to toe on entrance and exit through Transversal and each leave transformed.

Exhibited at the Capitol Theatre, Windsor ON, 1994.