Vera Vasek
Plato's Cave, 2008
Multimedia
Dimensions variable
(three components)
Vera Vasek
Vera Vasek's installation, Plato's Cave, is a multimedia piece in three parts installed in and around the ruined stairwell of the original brick fort. Viewed through the ruin's arched doorway is a video image of the setting sun's brilliant reflection cast on waves that are seen and heard washing a beach, set against a shimmering horizon where the unseen sun seems never to set. Time stands still...or does it? Around the corner of the ruin, affixed to its outer wall, a circular tidal relief hangs in balance, mimicking both the waves seen in the video and the unseen source of the sunset rays. A few steps away, a weathered Ali Baba jar rests on its side, guarding the other entrance to the ruin. In the mouth of the empty jar appears another video projection of setting sunlight reflecting on water.
Light is a metaphor for perception and knowledge. Like the shadows on the walls of Plato's mythic cave, the images in this installation illustrate the perceptual gulf between appearance and reality.
Vasek is a member of American Abstract Artists. She lives in Key West, FL.
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