Navigations of Time, Light + Space

Title ~ Sublime Fallacies: Navigations of Time, Light + Space – using photographic and time-based visual language to explore Immersive Spaces

The Question ~ The photograph records reality while at the same moment is a fallacy. Re-presentations are always more than mimetic; they embody personal psychologies (aesthetics/archetypes) and as such are perhaps the only ‘places’ where the liminal is embodied. Their language allows artist and viewer to explore ‘other places’. This idea; that visual ‘facts’ reveal (are revealing), has always fascinated me and provides a question to be explored. How do images reconcile contradictions between what is seen, imagined and revealed?

Summary ~ My idea is to record my own navigations of time, light and space using cameras (stlill and video), sometimes mounted to my kayak. Often at night (using underwater lights), both above and below the waterline, the images will employ a poetic visual language with the intention of moving between the real and non-real, embodying binary contradictions. The movement of the kayak is linear, through space; the photograph records light and captures time making it timeless, reconciling "maternal" time with linear time (Kristeva). In this sense, the kayak/boat space becomes an eliptical portal between realities – both an ancient vessel and transportion vehicle for exploration, and an embodied symbol (archetype: portal/doorway/birth canal) (Medvedev-Mead). Peering below the waterline is akin to entering a liminal space, an unknown realm. The liminal is a mysterious space much like the body, with similar associated fascinations and fears. On a metaphoric level Fear of the Deep and Fear of the Body trigger the same visceral reactions, they are places where psychological shadows lurk, an opportunities exist to engage the Other.

The Origins ~ Since photographing a pink tee shirt in a rock pool at sunset in 1980, I’ve had an ongoing fascination with the creation of what I call ‘atmospheric fallacies’ – (imaginary) immersive spaces. The work of Bill Viola was an early influence, conjuring the magic of water-filtered light and sound, engaging the senses while exploring metaphysics and symbol. The haunting work Swell, by Patricia Piccinini also had a powerful impact on my making process, suggesting possible ways to explore notions of the real and the non-real in video works. Paralleling my photographic practice, I have also worked with drawing; internal landscapes of the body. The symbols of bones have appeared through my work over decades and the work of Linde Ivemey contains resounding elements of my personal aesthetic in relation to the body.

A Brief Description ~ Using digital video, manipulated images, sound and layered imagery, I intend to create a body of photographic and time-based pieces, culminating in installation works. The work will investigate notions of reality in flux. Like our bodies, our imagination, our grasp of certainty is represented in layers formed from fragments of information. Individual images and video will be taken apart from their original context, reconstructed in order to probe other possibilities, and situated to provide catalysts for conjecture – a new immersive reality of the ‘in between’ (Irigaray).

Ideas
• to create a body of work in still and time-based images and sound to be viewed as an installation, conjuring an immersive liminal space
• to investigate the contribution of sound to the spatialisation of an environment


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free standing lightboxes UK: http://www.discountdisplays.co.uk/html/Freestanding%20light_boxes_for_graphics.html

 
(c) Alana Hampton ah