INFINITE BODY COLLAPSE
New Video Delay Works by Alex Carpenter
With Alexis Maxwell (Dancer)
Microscope Gallery, October 6th, 2012

Perhaps ghosts don't exist "between" normal points of focus, but reside at the core of these points. The essence of things lies within the things, not somewhere else. We don't need to make the things softer and more delicate, just because we imagine an essence that is itself soft and delicate. If anything, we need to make the things LOUDER, MORE forceful, MORE singular. Maybe then, once our perception tires of the surface layers, becomes exhausted, we will at last see the fragile core that has always eluded us.

"Infinite Body Collapse" is a collection of new works by Alex Carpenter, drawn from recent video delay sessions with dancer Alexis Maxwell, as well as audio delay recordings made this summer in a reputedly haunted house in Alexandria, Virginia.

Through Alex's video delay system, performed actions (danced, drawn, light-operated) are captured and layered continuously upon playback with previous cyclical generations, providing material for the performer to build on in a largely "unthinking" way. The system engages the performer in a focused, ecstatic process of observing and responding, as normal points of focus are saturated, obliterated, and a space is cleared for the unfolding of activity on a different scale.