| Rupture, Part One, aims to portray the situation that arises when things break down: when the routine of life pauses and the door is opened for basic, unmediated humanity to step and replace the automata of contemporary rigor. Such moments are inflections on how we function on a most basic level, without the societal and psychological influences that we have grown to rely upon. Separated into two distinct groups, the photographs provide a shift for the viewer between directly experiencing this moment, and a voyeuristic perspective that depicts the spectacle of watching another in the thrall of this experience. | 
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Nathan Baker
Rupture, Part One, aims to portray the situation that arises when things break down: when the routine of life pauses and the door is opened for basic, unmediated humanity to step and replace the automata of contemporary rigor. Such moments are inflections on how we function on a most basic level, without the societal and psychological influences that we have grown to rely upon. Separated into two distinct groups, the photographs provide a shift for the viewer between directly experiencing this moment, and a voyeuristic perspective that depicts the spectacle of watching another in the thrall of this experience.
The pictures, sans people, focus on the confrontational aspect of a common accident. Objects that are “ready-at-hand”—defined as things, often taken for granted, that exist as a standing reserve for use—have taken on a new role, one that beckons us to disregard our context of comfort and react innately to the loss of this ready-at-handedness. The coalescence of both humor and esteem is paramount in these pictures, and causes an odd tension in our understanding of what we experience. It’s almost as though the objects we have put into servitude have decided to form a coup d’état against our normality and force us to realize the futility in contriving our lives in this manner.
The next group of photographs depicts scenarios in which people are in this static state—after being presented with a stimulus, yet before a conscious reaction. This moment depicts when the things we have taken for granted step up and remind us of our humanity. The pictures present a perfectly eerie stillness—one that pervades throughout the scenario and represents the shattering of one’s assumed identity in relation to their context.
Lastly, the video work takes on the responsibility of providing a comparative context in which to deconstruct the scenario. We plainly see the normality that precedes the event, and, like a real experience, are hard-pressed to actually witness the fleeting moment that transforms our context from the Ready-at-Hand to the Present-at-Hand. We are left with the aftermath of the accident: an entrance into understanding the phenomenon that is our only path to realizing the experience.
As a whole, the work presents imagery of scenarios that beckon us to examine ourselves and our habits from a different perspective, to make an attempt at understanding exactly what it means to be human in today’s society. Both humorous and sincere, this work begs us to examine, re-think, laugh, and mature.
