Shelter began in 1989 as a performance-in-installation project. The objective was to create a temporal enclosure defined by animated slide projection. The images were produced using physical collage and by optical manipulation - this was before digital tools were powerful enough and affordable - to produce the distorted looks the Photoshop would soon popularize -- the slides were then "animated" on analog dissolve control, synched to music. A four-track audio cassette contained the slide cues and music.

In two years the project grew from the first 30-minute solo to a four-performer version (these performers became the Nuclear Family), from just two slide projectors to seven. These early versions took forms of site-specific performances around L.A., on city streets, on the beach and on a rooftop.

After a break in 1992-95 (to work on Tokyo Rose), I resumed production on Shelter in 1996. Two thousand new slides were shot to an entirely new soundtrack.

An exhibition was scheduled for December 1999 in Tokyo. When there was no funding - I was fed up after the tragic end of the Tokyo Rose tour owing to the closing of the Paris American Center and departures of curators and losses of funding around the world - I decided to put Shelter's performance element on video.

The Nuclear Family shot it all in my 10' x 13' living room over the summer, and premiered the slides-and-video version in San Francisco in November before the Tokyo show. In December 2000, the double digital-video installation Shelter 9 was premiered at Monaco Dance Forum. The virtual Family has been everywhere since.