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Air Apotropaia, Oct 2001- , photographs, various dimensions
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.