We begin as one does, on a Sisyphean task to find Perfect Blue Bubbles.
Now as you can imagine, a search like this can take you practically anywhere at all; so where does one even begin when tasked with something of such magnitude? …
Anticipating a night-out with friends, you pry a slat of the blinds up with your finger, peeping out a window hoping to catch a glimpse of a guest, who should arrive any minute now. Giddy about the thrills that lie ahead; a crescendo to a tough week, you are ready for anything.
While boiling water for some tea, you look down into the kettle and observe bubbles violently transition into vapor. It’s here this moment while sitting cross legged on a couch, perception of time slows; this is where our myopic quest comes to light.
Thoughts drift toward the thin membranes from the kettle. Bubbles are thin spheres of liquid enclosing a gas; They form organic spherical shapes and cast reflections. The spherical shape combined with their reflective nature gives them a funhouse mirror effect. The distortions bulging in the centre begin fraying where the edge of perception once felt defined have now shifted and blurred. A polarization and maybe a metaphor for much of the current global climate?
At this point you have decided that you are in fact in the very bubbles you have been searching for. Limited gravity with forward propulsion gives a unique perspective; one that clarifies scenes that are way too complex to interpret on the ground. A machination of culture and vice, a conveyor belt traveling through the clubs, pubs, and sporting events, art galleries, and casinos.
We see right through to the guts of towers and industry, diving headlong onto a capitalistic ecosystem the pipeline of mined raw material through heavy industry all the way up to the corporate boardrooms and political luncheons.
We pause over a scene where scant street lamps barely illuminate our urban streets. Crusty with filth and debris, foreboding figures and forms loom in the periphery and can’t quite be made out. A dynamism keeps us focussed on our bubbles. Sentry bravely saunters into the foreboding vignette, you eagerly follow a confidence so pure. Nimble musicality, and deep warmth, quickly puts any unease at rest.
Sentry moulds audio into whatever material one can imagine, from sand to rubber and back again. Deftly shifting, tilting, transforming dread to funk. Pulling back the curtain like Toto, you see the machinery that keeps us on course in this very simulation. A lot of fun and just a tad dangerous.
Where I think Sentry may be leading us is to acknowledge that elephant in the room; Sure life can be heavy and in this digital-age feels like your space is being encroached upon by tech-giants and advertisers but, “Why so serious?” this is your life and your own set of perfect bubbles. Now let’s have some fun.