Jonathan Schipper

On first encounter, Jonathan ’s installation Slow Room feels uncannily familiar. Perhaps that old couch looks just like your grandma’s, or your mom has that same framed print. But this is no ordinary living room. Each component—every decoration, plant, and lamp—affixes to a cable leading to a hole in the back wall. Over the course of the exhibition, a mechanism within the wall slowly, imperceptibly drags each object toward the hole, both amassing and destroying them in the process. Schipper’s work often takes the form of installations that underline our experience of time and its destructive power. Slow Room’s gradual demise is imperceptible to the eye in the moment; its impact comes through the knowledge of its impending destruction. Only on repeat viewings can you witness the result of the minute, yet continual, changes. The work compels you to stop and consider the slow change of your own form and that of the world around you, suggesting that creation and destruction, origin and destination, are two sides of the same coin.