From the Inner-Sea – Video Art
Presentation, Scale and Context. It matters, let’s have a look..
“A Guru Told Me to Look Within, but I Found This When I Did”, 2022, Video Art Loop
The work above manifested several months ago. In fact, an entire body of video art / animation work was created in a similar aesthetic and published here as an online exhibition. Im glad that it happened, it was all a catalyst..
Im revising the title of this piece. I will now share it as: “A Guru Told Me to Look Within, but I Found This When I Did”. My intention is for the presentation format to amplify the scale of “how” the viewer connects to the art. The simulation above may also amplify the scale of the many inner “storms at sea” that we all face through out our lives. Emotions are not linear, are they?
You can view the first iteration of the exhibition here. I would love to read your feedback (yes, please leave an old fashioned comment below). The animated video works in the series are visually stimulating and hypnotic, but I realize now that this was just a step in the larger whole of the production. Sometimes ideas take a long time to fully develop. Sometimes we also need to study the results that have been generated for a really long time. Sometimes… Im impatient, and Im OK with that. In this case, I love how “time and space” away from the work has played a role in the process. The animation above is the revision for what I believe to be the best format to present this body of work. The clean and open gallery space gives the viewer the necessary relationship to their own scale that I feel will best evoke a rapport with the work. The isolation of the piece with out any other visual distractions also plays a vital role in connecting with the viewer.
Below is the same video animation embedded into this blog post. You may be viewing this on your phone, tablet or lap top. These are all options, and they all “work”.. but do they really create an emotional connection?
With out the mock-up simulation of the physical space, place and sense of depth, does it hold the same strength and connection to you as the viewer? Why or why not?
More context about the works as per the first iteration of the narrative: (subject to change…)
“We will all face times in our lives where we must shed a role, identity and perception of ourselves that we no longer are.. Perhaps that metamorphosis can be intentionally induced through a form of creative metaphoric narrative? The medium may be generated through meditation, a gaming engine, animation, video and or the written word. That is one small formula, this is my attempt to integrate and simulate such a thing…
The artwork is soundless. I believe that there is great depth and beauty in soundlessness. It is an overlooked medium and energy source that hearing people take for granted. The intention of the soundlessness is to provoke the viewer to go inside of themselves and connect to that pending emotional state that needs to be faced. But “how” does one know once it has shed a self-perception of themselves? That evidence can only arrive through a metric of “time” spent in new and contrasting experiences..
My intention is to show these pieces at the scale in the simulation above. I appreciate any leads or interest via e-mail – ryan (at) ryanseslow.com
