The title for Journey to Nowhere was taken from Shiva Naipaul’s novel of the same name. This photo-based sculptural installation hovers in a darkened room like a time machine—self-contained and impenetrable.

Three wooden doors are hinged together into a triangular form. On the glass panels of two of the doors are full-size Duratrans transparencies, internally lit with fluorescent tubes. The third door is blank, punctuated only by a peephole. Conveniently, an electrical outlet is embedded in the middle of the gallery floor, so there are no visible wires—an absence that makes the work feel even more ominous.

The glass pane of one door is projected with an image from the jungles of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), while the second holds an image from the Silver Pagoda in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Both projections depict the same hallway: an impersonal, utilitarian, highly polished corridor whose architectural language belongs to the “over-developed” world, with its emphasis on management and efficiency. A ghost-like figure is barely discernible moving through the aisle. In this way, once war-afflicted “developing” countries come to occupy—and haunt—an environment marked by bureaucratic order.

Artwork Medium/Dimensions:
Journey to Nowhere (Silver Pagoda), Photographic transparency encased in a wooden door with glass panel, fluorescent tube lights, 3’ x 6’ (1 x 1.8meters) 1997Journey to Nowhere (Congolian Rainforest), Photographic transparency encased in a wooden door with glass panel, fluorescent tube lights, 3’ x 6’ (1 x 1.8meters) 1997

Exhibitions:
1997   The Ottawa Art Gallery,Ottawa, ON.
1998   The Windsor Art Gallery, Windsor, ON
1999   Oakville Galleries, Oakville, ON

Reviews/Booklet:
Howard, Virginia, “The Night Has A Thousand Eyes,” The Ottawa Citizen, 1997
Hawkes, Petra s, “Real Time”, Canadian Art Magazine, Spring 1998
Marks, Laura U., “Piper and Ramlochand”, Parachute Magazine, Spring 1998
Laurent, Dominique, “Voyeurs devant l’inconnu,” Le Droit, Arts Visuels, Montréal, QC, 1997