WATERFALL
2015
Water and landscape are recurring themes in my work. The Waterfall project uses videos and selected stills, to examine water’s fluid and frozen forms.
A 5-minute video features local water fountains in slow motion, black and white, and screened through an overlay of cracked glass. The molten shapes rise and fall like a 1960’s lava lamp, forming and reforming with a sinuous viscosity. Like memories, the shapes slowly build into identifiable forms, and then gradually, break down, only to resolve into other familiar visions. Imbued with a slow rhythm, the work has a hypnotic, calming effect.
The use of shattered glass as a veneer is a common thread, connecting previous projects. It abstracts and distorts the images, adding an otherworldly eeriness. It also brings a sense of fragility to the work, and references a cracked, dry Australian landscape. In contrast, the accompanying soundscape is a collection of gushing waterfalls, rivers and fountains found in Melbourne and regional Victoria.
The selection of video stills are enlarged and reproduced using photographic emulsion printed on steel, and as Ciglee prints on archival paper. Deeply etched and with strong tonal contrasts, these monotone images posses a haunting aesthetic. Momentarily ‘frozen’ they underline themes of transience and impermanence.
The Waterfall video was originally screened on Sunday 6th September 2015, at Cascade Gallery in Kehl, Germany. This version of the work involved collaboration with German sound artist, Michael Vierling, who composed an electro-percussive soundscape as a direct response to the video. During the presentation, multiple cameras captured and re-projected his live performance as an overlay onto the original Waterfall video.
