Ebb and Flow
“Ebb and Flow”
My many years of designing environments for film and theatre, married with my long-standing painting practice of large scale work, finds a new and exciting place to inhabit in a piece like "Ebb and Flow". In all aspects of my work I have consistently been drawn to the use of light and shadow, frames within frames, reflections and translucency as manifestations of physical, psychological and symbolic demarcations. Within and without the boundaries of my framework there also exists a continuum of storytelling, of process, of evolution. Using video to further express these thematic elements represents the opening of an invigorating new vein, as I integrate spatial design, with painterly images to explore obscure but compelling narratives.
Inspired by a long-standing memory and the imagery of people descending the grand Lucite staircase that bisects the lobby of Toronto’s Four Season’s Opera Centre, in 2011, I gathered several hours of video footage on my iPhone 4S which were then distilled and finessed into a 6:22 minute video. This film represents in no small way, a large, animated painting that captures a phrase of time, a rhythm of activity, as groupings and pairings contrast with lone operators in an ever-changing pattern of interconnectedness – evocation and specificity conveyed within a temporal flow of pattern and form. A portrait that is fully human and also fully of an organism, the video offers a rich parade that is both simple in form and complex in detail and feeling. “Ebb and Flow” builds logically and thematically upon my past work, vacillating between the recognizable and the evocative, the familiar and the strange. I aim to challenge the participant’s perceptions and expectations, while engaging them in an oblique form of narrative in which they are active interpreters.
To compliment the evocative quality of the imagery, composer Andrew Zeally offered me his "Nocturne # 2 for Electricity", which with its canon-like repetitions and silences, beautifully underscores the visual rhythm and patterning, the cumulative result inviting a reflective, engaging audio and visual experience.
“Ebb and Flow” link:
http://vimeo.com/59958810
Marian Wihak
Toronto
www.marianwihak.com
My many years of designing environments for film and theatre, married with my long-standing painting practice of large scale work, finds a new and exciting place to inhabit in a piece like "Ebb and Flow". In all aspects of my work I have consistently been drawn to the use of light and shadow, frames within frames, reflections and translucency as manifestations of physical, psychological and symbolic demarcations. Within and without the boundaries of my framework there also exists a continuum of storytelling, of process, of evolution. Using video to further express these thematic elements represents the opening of an invigorating new vein, as I integrate spatial design, with painterly images to explore obscure but compelling narratives.
Inspired by a long-standing memory and the imagery of people descending the grand Lucite staircase that bisects the lobby of Toronto’s Four Season’s Opera Centre, in 2011, I gathered several hours of video footage on my iPhone 4S which were then distilled and finessed into a 6:22 minute video. This film represents in no small way, a large, animated painting that captures a phrase of time, a rhythm of activity, as groupings and pairings contrast with lone operators in an ever-changing pattern of interconnectedness – evocation and specificity conveyed within a temporal flow of pattern and form. A portrait that is fully human and also fully of an organism, the video offers a rich parade that is both simple in form and complex in detail and feeling. “Ebb and Flow” builds logically and thematically upon my past work, vacillating between the recognizable and the evocative, the familiar and the strange. I aim to challenge the participant’s perceptions and expectations, while engaging them in an oblique form of narrative in which they are active interpreters.
To compliment the evocative quality of the imagery, composer Andrew Zeally offered me his "Nocturne # 2 for Electricity", which with its canon-like repetitions and silences, beautifully underscores the visual rhythm and patterning, the cumulative result inviting a reflective, engaging audio and visual experience.
“Ebb and Flow” link:
http://vimeo.com/59958810
Marian Wihak
Toronto
www.marianwihak.com
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