PAUSED

selected photographs | 2021 - 2025 | various dimensions

In practice, the Paused series is quite simple: when someone gets up to go to the bathroom or grab a snack from the kitchen, the television is paused and the screen photographed. Because of hearing difficulties, the captions perpetually remain on, and so the text inseparable from the frozen image. However, this act of banality creates something quite complex — it’s the intersection of three intriguing concepts: a self-portrait described through the consumption of entertainment media (myself defined by what I choose to watch), the act of uncontrolled serendipity when the media is paused, and the relative, pre-formed connection or disconnection to the content enjoyed by the viewer.

While I am interested in exploring unplanned art as a way of collecting poetic moments, it is perhaps this last theoretical apex that intrigues me the most. Paused does one of two distinct things: for the person unfamiliar with the show or movie being watched, there is the potential for a mysterious narrative to blossom between what the caption implies and what the image shows. On the other hand, for those who have seen the content, there is a kind of “inside joke” that completely denies the existence—or even the possibility—of a imaginary narrative in the first place. This polarization or either a communion with of shared experience or unfolding of a uniquely imagined narrative, adds to the richness from such a simple unplanned action.