Air Apotropaia

 

Jonathan Allen

 

29 May 2013





























Jonathan Allen Air Apotropaia [Oct 2001-], selected photographs.

After 9/11, passenger visits to commercial airline cockpits were prohibited, thereby
preventing informal, spontaneous communication with pilots during flights. In Air
Apotropaia (Oct 2001–) Allen exchanges this extinct aerial encounter for sympathetic magic.
Laying his hand upon the fuselage of an aircraft immediately before boarding, he partly fulfils
a desire for contact with that which will shortly ‘touch the sky’, and partly adheres to the
custom of ‘touching for luck’. This ongoing photographic series documents the moment of
embarkation, both literal and figurative, from solid ground, as faith in technology meets
irrational superstition.