Denis Gillingwater creates a sense of interchange between reality and the subconscious mind in his sculpture and installation work. He often employs a window both as a metaphor for the human eye and as that plane that dictates the separation between reality and perception.
For the Window on Broadway, Gillingwater provides the viewer an opportunity to figuratively “pass through the glass into an inner realm while remaining firmly fixed in the real space of the sidewalk on Broadway,” one of New York’s busiest neighborhoods. Employing various mechanical devices such as ticking clocks, lights, vents, oscillators, peep-holes and reflective materials, Gillingwater creates a visceral experience whereby the viewer is simultaneously reflected in the window and encouraged to pass beyond that reflection into a magical planetary universe that exists in the relatively shallow space of the window but appears to be an infinitely receding tableau.