CHROMASCAPES
This new body of work comprises a series of videos and unique pigment prints translating data and emotions through a lengthy and complex process that combines the recycling and regenerating of media in what could be described as a digital moving collage. The work is part of a broader investigation, which I began when I created two pieces presented at NYCAMS (New York Center for Art & Media Studies) for John Cage’s centennial in 2012 (a video installation/performance and a mix-media mural). This marked a departure in my practice and approach to photography, which I would describe as a shift from “taking pictures” to “making images”. This evolution in my work came from the inevitable confrontation with digital technologies, the frustration resulting from it and also the renewed possibilities it offers to go beyond the boundaries of the medium and to explore and combine different disciplines (video, photography, performance, painting).
The starting point of the project was some close-up video footage I shot of a singer performing during a rock concert in New York City. I’ve always been interested in contemporary dance and music performance, and how the body can be used as a vehicle for transmitting emotions, from pure ecstasy to darker expressions of pain or sadness. I used various video clips from that shoot, and arranged and layered them in different sizes and places on my computer desktop as if applying different materials or strokes onto a canvas. The resulting “arrangements” were then recaptured with my camera fixed on a tripod while the clips are playing simultaneously in a loop, thus creating a sort of moving collage. As I video-recorded the animated screen of the computer, I used the aperture and the focus of the lens to distort and blur the moving image. The figurative motif of the performer in motion is then stripped of any representational reference and transformed into organic fields of color morphing into each other with edgeless shapes. Stills are generated from that process using either the camera at a slow shutter speed during the actual video capturing, or with the help of screen-capture software, afterwards.
Stills from video footage of the performance
Link to videos: https://vimeo.com/album/2163402 (Password: emote)
I’m not as interested in the figurative representation of the singer and his physical expressions through the performance as I am in the resulting mood and color atmospheres generated through this process of distortion and dematerialization of the real. Colors then become the vehicle to translate and trigger emotions. Somehow, it is also a way to reframe and abstract the figurative not dissimilar to cubism or abstract painting. The original video clips function as “fluid pigments” combined with the luminescence of the computer, thus creating new compositions that can be compared to brush strokes.
As a final stage, I am planning to transfer the final videos to 16mm film and project them using an analog projector. Somehow, I see the organic grain of the film and the sound and physical presence of the film projector as a metaphor for the human performance that originated the project.
From the slippery surface of water to the slippery surface of the computer screen
For over a decade my work has focused on water and I have been exploring its many qualities through several photographic series and videos. I see a parallel between the surface of the water and the surface of the computer screen and the way they interact with light and movement. It therefore feels natural to me to use the computer screen in a similar manner I have used the surface of the water as a distorting lens to generate images of transformed reality. They also both have a shimmering and seductive quality one can be drawn to.
Working in this new direction is a way for me to address and explore the digital realm we are constantly confronted with in our everyday life. Coming from an analog practice of photography, it is intriguing and challenging, and it opens up a lot of new possibilities, including shifting my practice from the field or location to the studio. It also allows me to create images from multiple ones viewed simultaneously, not unlike the way we apprehend and consume images in today’s digital age through social media, Google search, etc.
Click here for a selection of videos or copy and paste direct link: https://vimeo.com/album/2163402
Password to all videos: emote
Unique pigment print on watercolor paper
Final size TBD
Unique pigment print on watercolor paper
Final size TBD
Unique pigment print on watercolor paper
Final size TBD
Unique pigment print on watercolor paper
Final size TBD
Unique pigment print on watercolor paper
Final size TBD
Unique pigment print on watercolor paper
Final size TBD
Unique pigment print on watercolor paper
Final size TBD
Unique pigment print on watercolor paper
Final size TBD