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Everyday life is made up of moments that pass us by and are often overlooked. Most of these moments are overlooked as moments where one could say nothing is happening. A fascination in these small moments is what guides my work, as I am interested in bringing attention to these fleeting times. I am rediscovering the values of observation through focusing attention to the often unnoticed moments that occur in the everyday and this awareness of all that has been overlooked because of the way we naturally tune things out is the source of my investigation.
Using video and sound as drawing, I am exploring this idea of what happens when nothing happens and making these moments of nothing into something. Video and sound allow for the honest and audible examination of these minute moments. I am recording the ordinary. These recordings capture the reality of moments that happen in place and in time. The quality of the everyday occurs not only in sound and I continue to explore its complexities through drawings that contain moving image and sometimes text. These drawings highlight the interactions that we have in daily life. This ranges from snippets of things that I overhear to things that I see which serve as readable reminders of everyday encounters.
The work focuses on the ignored sounds that are tuned out because they are merely reminders of the mundanity found in daily life. I am currently building an archive of these ordinary sounds within context and finding that there is something special in the commonplace of these sounds. I am gathering and recording the everyday and re-presenting the information in other spaces, emphasizing what is perceived as ordinary and bringing attention to the mundane. The work asks the viewers to slow down, look at and listen to these moments, in order to become more aware of the incidental moments occurring in their own everyday.
Julie Benoit
Artist Statement
May 2009
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