Description
Punctuated Sequence in Red, V, 2010–15
This photograph is the fifth and last part of a series called Punctuated Sequence in Red. At the time, I was working as a research technician in a biology lab at Rockefeller University in New York City. One of the experimental methods scientists would often use was to capture events at various time points, taking snapshots at different times within a set framework to understand how a phenomenon of their question would unfold over the course of time. I was fascinated by this idea of imagining what might happen in the “in-between” time points and projecting that imagination into the realm of reality, or the known.
When I first printed this image in 2010, I had cropped out the “messy” details around the edges: the blue tape I had used to align what I saw on the viewfinder of my 4×5 view camera with the actual studio corner. Five years later, while looking at the contact sheet, I noticed these overlooked elements along the edges and felt compelled to include them. The white shapes in the red corner anchored my intentions and control, while the edges held traces of my process and the details I had initially dismissed. This felt like another interplay between dreaming and knowing.
Sophia Chai was born in Busan, South Korea. She received her BA in chemistry from the University of Chicago and earned her MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Chai has presented her work widely at sites including the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Knockdown Center, and multiple galleries. The City of Rochester and Destination Medical Center commissioned her first permanent public outdoor project, completed this past summer. Chai is represented by Hair + Nails. She lives and works in Rochester, MN.
