force with no net sum
Emilia González Salgado and Michelle Lee Johnson
‘force with no net sum’ is a site-specific, durational installation and the first public exhibition of a collaborative practice between Emilia González Salgado and Michelle Lee Johnson. A “force with no net sum” refers to the process where multiple forces acting on an object, cancel each other out, resulting in a cyclical state of equilibrium or no change to the object.
Constructed as an on-site distillation device, it processes the air in the space to condense its atmosphere into a hydrosol-based liquid, funneling the liquid into handblown glass vessels formed to the inside of each artists’ mouth.
The liquid carries the accumulated scent of the space over the course of the exhibition. The machine is a performer, generating a fluid-based documentation; a collection of breath, sweat, humidity, amongst other indeterminate residues.