APORIA

Aporia is a video installation that explores the complexity of the contradictions faced by a typical legal immigrant to the United States. At the core of an immigrant’s experience is an internal dialectic. It constitutes fluctuation between the memorized past and the imagined future. This dialectic allows the immigrant to survive certain uncertainty and face new redundancies. Armed with this dialectic, an immigrant subject can battle against the real on behalf of a cherished representation. This internal dialectic suspends the linear flow of time, or rather creates excess time outside of the present, within which the immigrant rehearses a life to be lived in the future. Aporia simulates the experience of contradiction and difference, through repetition. The installation includes a silent video loop projection, a gelatin silver print displayed on a pedestal, an audio cassette player that plays a 60 minute audio loop, and a half filled glass of water.