Esker Foundation commissioned David Hoffos to produce a site-specific, two-channel video, and mixed media installation titled Follower. The video work was filmed in the streets and alleys of Inglewood, Calgary in April 2013.
Hoffos borrows inspiration from a range of cultural phenomena including stage magic, theme parks, genre movies, and self-help books. From a mixed bag of found and invented technologies, the artist conjures an eerie world of illusion while simultaneously exposing its artifice. Much of Hoffos’s installation work presents a blend of sculptural diorama and do-it-yourself cinema. Although his uncanny effects often provoke a sense of wonder—or even terror—in the viewer, his true subjects are the collective modern conditions of melancholy and anxiety.
