Perfect Touch (2021) by Sarah Rara – A Soothing Reminder of Connection Amid the Pandemic
When we met with Sarah Rara to discuss LUMINEX: Dialogues of Light, the pandemic forced us to meet on Zoom. Rara thrives in digital spaces, and her work often explores connections that technology enables. Perfect Touch (2021) makes this especially clear.
In this piece, Rara explores contact, telepresence, kinship, distance, and loss. She continues investigating how light and sound can relay and transform information.
At LUMINEX: Dialogues of Light, Rara paired light and sound with close-up visuals of two sets of hands performing string figure games on opposite sides of the 1154 S Olive St building. The game depends on connection, and it evokes childhood memories. These images recall playground moments and the simple, physical bonds of the past.
Rara also emphasizes telepresence. She places the two video screens apart to show how technology mediates relationships across distance. The strings recall childhood “telephone wires.” Together, these elements highlight both our reliance on technology and the new ways we maintain bonds.
The work also evokes a sense of loss: the absence of in-person contact, the fleeting innocence of playful pastimes, and the vanished ease of pre-pandemic life. Yet it conveys hope. Technology can bridge gaps, nurture connections, and support healing as we move toward a future our younger selves would recognize and celebrate.
Rara explains, “I use the physical interval between the north and south sides of the building to explore the in-between spaces and invisible entanglements between us.” In these spaces, viewers can confront and honor the intertwined emotions of loss and hope.
If you missed Perfect Touch at LUMINEX: Dialogues of Light, you can watch it through the livestream.
ABOUT SARAH RARA
Rara contributes to the ongoing project Lucky Dragons alongside Luke Fischbeck. Her solo and collaborative work has appeared at major institutions, including the Hammer Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art (as part of the 2008 Whitney Biennial), the Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. She has also exhibited at London’s Institute of Contemporary Art, PS1 in New York, REDCAT and LACMA in Los Angeles, MOCA Los Angeles, the 54th Venice Biennale, and the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
In fall 2015, Hesse Press released her first volume of poems, Earth Breakup. She followed this with the chapbook Chronic Objector, published by Miniature Garden in spring 2017. In 2018, Rara received the LACMA Art + Technology Fellowship.