immanent fear

Four Channel Video Installation

"...it's not just the people in her work who are in this vulnerable state. The artist too, is in this same position, for it is in the nature of art
that the artist is exposed.  Indeed, exposure and vulnerability, creativity and fear, go hand in hand.  For in being creative we reveal our inner
selves, and risk both failure and success.

If fear runs somewhere short of virtue, one means of redemption lies in the choice to reveal rather than conceal - whether on this side of the art
work or that, in the end, both artist and subject are part of the creative act , and that act, ultimately is an act of courage."
Drake Gomez, Director of Exhibitions, Keystone College

IMMANENT FEAR 2004

WATCH HERE / Short Version

In the summer and fall preceding the 2004 presidential election, I interviewed fifty people about their fears.
It was during the height of the war in Iraq and the threat of fear in the United States was running high.
I asked the subjects nineteen questions on the nature of fear.  The questions were both personal and universal and the answers touched upon people's beliefs about themselves and their world-view.

The initial interviews were approximately thirty minutes.  They were edited to about ten minutes each.

The interviews are funny, poignant and telling. The manner in which we speak about our fears,
whether we go into depth or refer to them with scant interest or self-awareness speaks to our
world-view.  Our politics too, seem prefaced by how fear touches our world.

The project is viewed on four monitors running simultaneously in the same space.
Each monitor displays twelve interviews, one at a time, for a total of forty-eight.

THE QUESTIONS
Describe what fear means to you?      Does it stop you from doing things?      Does it stop you from moving forward with your life?      Does it motivate you?       Is fear a driving force?     How do you get past your fears?    What do you think most people fear?      Do you fear death?     Do you fear aging?      Do you fear conflict?    Do you fear nothingness?      Do you fear doubt?    Do you fear peace?      Do you think fear and conflict are related?      Do you think people can fear "no conflict"?      Are you afraid of terrorism?       Why do you think the United States is in this conflict in Iraq?      Are you afraid to think the unthinkable (whatever the unthinkable is for you?)      What do you fear?

Listen to an interview with Bathsheba Monk on "Art Salon" on WDIY FM, from December 23, 2012, about IMMANENT FEAR
http://wdiy.org/post/lydia-panass-immanent-fear-featured-lehigh-valley-arts-salon

Listen to an interview with Kenn Michael on "Musings", WDIY FM, from November 29, 2012, about IMMANENT FEAR
http://wdiy.org/post/immanent-fear

FOR EXHIBITION INQUIRIES, AND TO VIEW THE ENTIRE PROJECT, CONTACT THE ARTIST AT STUDIO@LYDIAPANAS.COM