Exhibition: Observatory

Posted: March 16th, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: exhibition, mfa-thesis, portals, Unknowing, winter | No Comments »

Observatory exhibition, Tahoe Gallery, Sierra Nevada University, Nevada
January 2022
Mary Jeys and Sarah Logan

The work presented in Observatory was the first version of presenting from the archive of collected livestream videos. I presented a burning candle at a window at sunset on a TV monitor, a pot of water going from cold-poured to boiling on an iPad, and myself and my own watching and waiting on an iPhone. I installed a dorm room to call to the visitor’s mind and body an experience of watching and waiting at a networked happening in a site-specific sleeping quarters. I chose to perform toasting bread as an everyday activity that shifts bread or stale bread to palatable toast.

The work was available not only in the gallery, but also on Twitch whose daily active users spend an average of 95 minutes watching streamers stay at their camera for over 8 hours in any given day. The opportunity that I saw was to introduce my own artistic play into a place of durational long watching that might offer an introspective offering that could invite a togetherness across the experience of our screens.

I view this work as an invitation to consider our position of solo screen time as both a site of unknowing or otherspace that can invite or provoke emotional conditions for change within the visitor and to point to the place of online engagement as instructive in our solitude.


Untitled Portal, Candle
Video of recorded livestream, video monitor
Livestreamed October 18, 2021 TRT: 02:34:37


Untitled Portal, Pot
Video of recorded livestream, iPad
Livestreamed November 18, 2021 TRT: 00:17:27


Untitled Portal, Dorm
Furniture on loan from Housing Department: Bed, Sheets, Pillow, Desk; wallpaint, toaster, bread, plate, computer, webcam
The visitor was invited to watch livestream via the artist’s Twitch channel on their mobile device using a QR code.


Untitled Portal, Toast
Performance of toasting bread slices while livestreaming to artist’s Twitch channel.
Livestreamed on January 9 and 11, 2022


Untitled Portal, Toast
Finished performance with toasted bread loaf.
Livestreamed on January 9 and 11, 2022


Untitled Portal, Self
Splitscreen video of recorded livestream and screen recording of received livestream, iphone
Livestreamed December 5, 2021 TRT: 00:21:02


Drop in the Present
Mary Jeys and Sarah Logan
microscope, camera, artist saliva, computer, projector, artist’s open crate display
Livefeed from microscope of saliva from artist’s mouth on January 4, 2022.


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