Storefront installation in the West End of Pittsburgh.
This piece was commission by Future Tenant Gallery and the West End Association for an empty Storefront in Pittsburgh, PA.

For a few days I walked around the streets of the West End, while figuring out a way to produce this project. Each of these walks implied encounters and conversations with people that work in the neighborhood, who are normally invisible for a distracted passer by. During this time I stopped in every store or business that could provide these encounters and conversations, while altering the downtime of each business and their employees.

Two TVs play continuously videos of people’s eyes looking back at viewers when performing their normal tasks in the stores. A sensor in the window, activated by pedestrians passing in front of the windows, controls two fans that blow at the curtains installed inside the storefront.

“Mira lo que Eye” (See what’s there, who’s there) is a project where the the lives of West End residents and pedestrians are confronted with close up images of people that work or spent most of their time in commercial and public spaces of neighborhood. The gaze of the participants stares continuously at the street, while resembling an almost meditative situation that moves between patient attention, surveillance and even active imagination and distraction. The installation seeks to bring back a contradictory moment into the store front, that of being present physically but mentally absent while being lost in the downtime, routine and even monotony of the street.

This installation comments on the lack of recognition for those who still remain in neighborhood.

Video Documentation: