In Prelude the subject’s rhythmic motion and bodily weight affect the setting. A shadow falls across the wall; the creak of floorboards echoes through the space. The man hears his own weight as he connects with the floor, while seemingly wresting with his own shadow and struggling to affect his surroundings through sound. The nude postures recall classical anatomical artistic themes, while the rhythm of movement links the work to primal energy and shamanistic, transcendent experience. Over the pictorial surface lie steel wires or strings, underscoring the concord of sound and image in the work’s classical setting. A shadow moves slowly along the steel strings, making a lulling sound in cadence with the man’s motion, a counterpoint to the sound he creates with his body in the space. Bodily nearness, sound, and the emptiness of the set create a pervasive uncanny mood, carrying the work’s emotional weight and impetus. Prelude draws the viewer into a sound-space and visual world in which repetition and rhythm create an atmosphere referring to both a cultural background and a mental state.

‍