Intercessor

Intercessor creates a sensory experience. Encouraged to enter the box, participant viewers enclose themselves inside. Installed at eye level on the door is a peep hole. Spectators can peer into the box, while the participant watches the spectator. Inside the box is the scent of wax, which coats the roof of the box. There is a small tuft of cat hair placed on a small ledge built on the inside of the door, and a set of headphones hanging from the inside sidewall for listening. The headphones connect the participant to a looped recording. 

The soundscape is created with recordings from the elevator, riding from the pool to the basement in the Hearst Athletic Building (UC Berkeley)  where the remains of 10,000 Native Americans are stored in boxes,  paired with fragments of Curious George Goes to the Chocolate Factory, recorded during a paired reading exercise with a boy in an early intervention ABA program for autistic children, and  a lecture given by Professor Todd Olsen, Art Historian, on Michelangelo and El Greco.

Sound, [1:20]

Collaborating artist John Scott