Channon Goodwin | Whiteout

Whiteout 2008 is a video work that shows the artist, Channon Goodwin, repeatedly performing an activity to call attention to the pointlessness of the activity itself. In the video, the artist’s hand is shown vigorously shaking a snow-globe to retreat shortly after, letting the snow settle, and then repeating the process. The sound, a free WAV file sourced from the Internet, is of a blizzard/snow storm, although, like the snow globe, this sound is not at all convincing or realistic. A souvenir item, intended to take you back to a Skiing holiday or trip to the snow, the snow globe denotes another world far removed from the everyday. The act of shaking the globe functions more as a release of built-up frustrations with everyday life, an act of desperation to escape ordinary existence, than an action of little or no significance.