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2006-2007 : Bodhi Obfuscatus (Allegiance)

Michael Joo’s work is represented by a multi-media installation with video projection, mirrors and sound. For Bodhi Obfuscatus (Allegiance), a video helmet, devised by the artist as the equivalent of 48 live surveillance cameras, examines every detail of a group of New York teenagers’ faces as they tell stories about their lives and attempt to recite the “Pledge of Allegiance.” In the video installation, the close-up portraits, at once representational and abstract, are presented as a dense matrix of recorded projection and reflected video imagery.

Joo’s video helmet is part of an ongoing project which has been used to record sculptures in the examination of the relationship of science, technology and religion within institutional spaces. In this new work, the static icon has been replaced by living beings, themselves icons of adolescence, for a meditation on the uneasy balance between uncertainty and conviction that signals change.

Bodhi Obfuscatus (Allegiance) was exhibited at the Miami Art Space in the Wynwood Art District (Miami) for Art Basel Miami Beach in December 2007, and at the Chelsea Art Museum in January 2009.

Funding for this project has been provided in part by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with The NYC Council, The Henry Bride Foundation, and the School of Visual Arts.