Fernando Orellana

Fernando Orellana will continue his investigation of the paranormal for his August 2016 Morris Gallery exhibition. Orellana builds robotic machines that, when triggered by changes in temperature or the electromagnetic field, operate various objects that once belonged to people now deceased. For example, in his work Their Words, the presence of a ghost triggers a machine that flips through the pages of a dictionary, which once belonged to an esteemed book collector. Orellana will use the long history of PAFA and its wealth of Thomas Eakins’ archival materials to create a site-specific work for his Morris Gallery exhibition. His work forces us to confront the difference between what we see and what we think we see.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website