Fault Lines

 

 

 

Fault Lines

Communication. It is an act that is required on a daily basis, yet so often seems to breakdown, crack, split. Tori Masters’ work often deals with the idea of absence and presence. This theme combines with the idea of dysfunctional communication, along with aspects of loss, melancholy, and the relationship between text and image, to form Fault Lines.

This photographic project juxtaposes two different but connected aspects of this work in a dialogue with each other. One component features self-portraits which deal with the interaction with a letter comprised of things the artists would like to say but cannot. The repetition of this futile but necessary action becomes an analogy for the dysfunction of communication itself. In the second portion of this series, the viewer is presented with highly staged domestic scenes void of the human figure yet full of the human presence. In each image there seems to be a catalyst of sorts, often a mundane representative of the fissures that happen within our conversations and relationships; in one, a salt shaker tipped over, another a lampshade askew. Each of these images bears the faint remnant of a word, sandblasted subtly onto the glass before the image. The singular word allows for a multitude of readings. Although this work stems from a personal space, it deals in terms of the broad, and is relatable to all of our own dealings with dysfunction and dialogue.