Landscape #2: South-Facing Window View Between Longbranch and Exhibition Train Stations, Toronto (Enlarged 200%, Blurred 2%, Sharpened 1300% and Slowed Down to 2% of the Original Speed), silent, 2 min. 42 sec.
In the Landscape Series (12 videos, 2 min. 42 sec.) recognizable video landscapes are transformed through an exploration/manipulation of the material of video (light, colour, codecs, pixels and time) and an investigation of camera failure in an attempt to break from the cultural meanings and dominant narratives embedded in the genre of Canadian Landscape Art.
Since the Group of Seven began painting in the 1920’s, Landscape Art in Canada has been strongly associated with national identity. I wish to break with this history—a challenge shared with artists from other national traditions who also find themselves compelled to negotiate their own national tropes in an evolving transnational global culture.
The more camera technology advances, the more interesting it becomes to examine the ways in which cameras generate and resist failure. The camera used to shoot these landscapes has an obvious failing: a lossy codec that visibly degrades image quality. I follow this failure in order to open up its experimental, alternative, virtual, radical potential.
Landscape #4: Rain Lake, Algonquin Park, Ontario (Enlarged 2498%, Blurred 13%, Sharpened 800% and Slowed Down to .08% of the Original Speed), silent, 2 min. 42 sec.
Landscape #5: Water Fountain at Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto (Enlarged 1130%, Blurred 3%, Sharpened 288% and Slowed Down to 5% of the Original Speed), silent, 2 min. 42 sec.
Landscape #6: South-Facing Window View Between Longbranch and Exhibition Train Stations, Toronto (Enlarged 300%, Blurred 325%, Sharpened 1449% and Slowed Down to 10% of the Original Speed), silent, 2 min. 42 sec.
Landscape #7: South-Facing Window View Between Longbranch and Exhibition Train Stations, Toronto (Enlarged 7600%, Blurred 4%, Sharpened 1687% and Slowed Down to 3% of the Original Speed), silent,
2 min. 42 sec.
Landscape #8: Water Fountain at Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto (Enlarged 3500%, Sharpened 188% and Slowed Down to 5% of the Original Speed), silent, 2 min. 42 sec.
Landscape #10: Stong Pond in Winter, York University, Toronto (Enlarged 1900%, Blurred 8%, Sharpened 500% and Slowed Down to 5% of the Original Speed), silent, 2 min. 42 sec.
Landscape #12: Winter Flowers at Joshua Tree National Park, California (Enlarged 900%, Sharpened 249% and Slowed Down to 5% of the Original Speed), silent, 2 min. 42 sec.
Screened or exhibited in whole or in part at:
Reykjavik International Film Festival, Iceland, August 2014.
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise, music/performing arts festival, Netherlands, August 2014.
Powerstation of Art, Shanghai, China, July 2014.
ODD Gallery, Dawson City, Yukon, March 2013.
Art and Drinks, Toronto, September 2011 – January 2012.
Images Festival, Toronto, April 2012.
The One Minute Awards, Amsterdam, Netherlands, April 2012.
Canadian Film Centre “A World of Shorts”, National Film Board Mediatheque, Toronto, April 2012.
Leeds International Film Festival, Leeds, England, UK, November 2011.
Toronto Urban Film Festival, Toronto, September 2011.
The One Minute Series, Amsterdam Museum, deBuren, Brussels and Centraal Museum, Utrecht, August 2011.