Peggy Ahwesh, American, b. 1954. Warm Objects, 2007. 6 minutes. Courtesy of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York
Warm Objects
July 1, 2021 - July 31, 2021
Warm Objects was produced by Peggy Ahwesh in close collaboration with the engineering research center MIRTHE (Mid-InfraRed Technologies for Health and the Environment), an organization dedicated to the development of optical trace gas sensing systems. Utilizing MIRTHE’s imaging technology, scenes of everyday incidents are transformed by infrared photography into glimpses of our world through an alien lens. Two insertions of on-screen text betray the artist’s ominous implications. The first is a meditation on Rudyard Kipling’s oft-quoted “Truth is the first casualty of war,” while the second takes the form of a hastily crafted e-mail, suggesting that its author has become withdrawn and pessimistic out of fear of some pending disaster. Warm Objects is a portrait of the world in uncertain and paranoid times.
