VABIANNA SANTOS

We're standing around at the show laughing, saying, "you know when you're manipulating an illusion that's manifesting reality?"

This is a thin layer of black sand on the floor. Spreading out under a compressed horizon. Everyone thinks it's just an area of cloth- perhaps made of felt, and so they walk right through. Or they get a hallucinatory shock when the perceived solid plane gives way to a field of particles. I had been writing stories about beach nourishment, where the sand must be replaced to counteract erosion, interactions with impermanence, and ended up having to do gentle maintenance on this piece. I had been writing stories about cops as the voice of existential dilemma. And we had to stand and guard this thing.

But of all the interactions this installation created, my favorite involved a woman in stiletto heels. She stepped gracefully oblivious backwards into the sand. I beckoned her silently with just my hands and she stepped just as gracefully out, barely leaving the mark of her heels.