When Insoon Ha proposed her latest concept to Sean Donaher of the Big Orbit Gallery, he gave her carte blanche and even exceeded the budget in bringing her vision to fruition. The result is a powerful contemplation of exterior and interior space, an introspective view into voyeurism and the sometimes co-mingling and interchangeable states of victim and victimizer.

Insoon Ha’s second show at the Big Orbit, The Island, is a departure from her first, Breeding Season an examination of fantastically shocking biomorphic forms. She is transitioning from the organic into the architectural.

The entire Big Orbit space has been transformed—a large room built specifically for the show encases The Island. Upon entering the exhibit, one encounters a liminal anxiety in a darkened area as one circles the exterior of the confinement. Walking through a narrow opening, there is the experience of rain, an auditory and visual illusion projected onto the walls. Within this room is yet another inner impenetrable chamber. This second encasement is a structure housing a shower with perpetually running water. The outside of the shower is constructed of corrugated steel, the same material used in cargo containers.

It is no accident it is made to resemble a shipment of cargo—Ha, as an immigrant from Seoul, delves into issues of what it is to be an outsider looking in, never quite assimilating. There is the transference of goods—importing and exporting precious merchandise.

The layout is reminiscent of Russian nesting dolls. Water in the shower is recycled through a pump, heard and seen but never felt.

Ha used water in her show to explore the emotional aspects of this common element. It is necessary to everyday survival yet it remains elusive and fluid. Water dissolves and cleanses, baptizes, transports nutrients. By itself it is inanimate, but here it is in constant motion, a fleeting ephemeral quality in contrast to the cold hardness of the steel or the clinical sterility of the tiled shower.

The rooms are an exploration of interior and exterior spaces, what we reveal to the world, opposed to what we keep hidden amongst ourselves. We have a metaphor for the bondage of an inescapable memory. The water and images are in a constant cycled loop.

The shower is both a womb-like shelter to hide and seek sanctuary yet it is also a prison. Ha conveys a deep sense of alienation and isolation—a pain that cannot be cleansed or relieved. Sorrows unforgotten, wrongs not forgiven, wounds unhealed.

The container is a metaphor for the individual. The walls are skeletal, the projections are the skin of the body. In trying to penetrate the inner sanctum, one attempts to understand the mystery of another, to enter into a place one can never quite access, and is ultimately left adrift on The Island.

The Island runs until July 1 at the Big Orbit, 30d Essex Street (883-3209). Hours are Thu-Sun 12-5pm.