![]() ![]() Perhaps, however, Inanna longs for a conduit to reach the deep blue below the atmospheric overhead. ![]() The Mask of Warka was possibly a depiction of the ancient Mesopotamian goddess, Inanna, who made her mythological dwelling in Heaven. Instead of Lapis Lazuli or another opaque material, layers of shimmering water are both what is seen and what is performing the act of seeing. In Vala’s piece, the eyes remain negative space. These materials would have been fastened into the pointy, ellipse-shaped space made for each watchful eye-the same shape, serendipitously, as a single indigo seed. Known also as Lady of Uruk, named for the ancient city of Sumer located in present-day Iraq, her eyes were likely made with white shells detailed by blue Lapis Lazuli irises and pupils. They become crisp in view before fading back into the layers of video patterned with glimmering, blue water.Ī pointed ellipse shape flickers above one of the vases – a familiar shape soon repeated in the watchful eyes of the Mask of Warka. Ancient Cypriot vessels rotate and pass through select frames. Objects imbued with mythological meaning and spiritual purpose circulate throughout the video. Time^Object^Conduit is a four-channel video piece that acts as a vessel to hold those three words, like a microcosm of Vala’s practice. It’s drenched in mysteries both ancient and future – where to be a time traveler is normal and to be fixed in any singular era is far less so. In this contradictory space, underworld meets speculative future, solid stoneware meets vibrating neon, and stable blues meet liminal blue portals. Neon blue is in its element when it meets Vala’s science fiction inspirations, beautifully out of its depth when introduced to ancient mythos. And that particular glow, often a blue one, now saturates many object emergences in Vala’s practice. The buzzing colors of neon gas trapped in vacuum tubes cast vivid colors across the 1980s. ![]()
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