First exhibited at Polygon Gallery (nee Presentation House) in 2000, this looping narrative is centered around a conversation
between drivers at a traffic stop.
Set at night, a traffic intersection emanates from a central 360° projector (that the artist designed and fabricated) outwards onto all the walls of the gallery. Projected into two vehicles at each side of the panorama,
two strangers (video), can be seen paused 'momentarily' at a red light at a traffic intersection. To the fore, motion-blurred images and sound of passing traffic flash by. Time has been manipulated by the artist, attenuated
into a 13 minute partially gestural narrative. What would have been a fleeting, casual exchange between two strangers has been transformed into a strange slowness, as if time has warped around them; affecting both their dialogue and gestures.
This work was predicated on a real-life experience by the artist en-route to her studio. A driver w red eyes, flanking my car kept pointing at the back of her toyota hatchback where her 360 degree projector for Swell was visible,
and kept gesturing at it and mouthing a question. The windows unwound, as questions began, I realized the impossibility of describing Swell in a fleeting moment at a traffic light. This immersive looping narrative is
centred on a disjointed conversation between drivers at a traffic stop. I have dropped the viewer into the live mise-en-scene so that they can experience the situation, directing their attention this way and that, and therefore
vulnerable to missing part of the responses and innuendo, just as the characters themselves do. A driver keeps pointing to the back of a toyota hatchback at an object mouthing a question.
Snippets of dialogue:
F: 'what did you say?"
J: "where is it going?... how does it work?... I don't quite get it"."you have time..."
It takes a surreal turn when J says: Look! everything's blurry...everything's blurry...(worried)...it's...it's an enclosure! it's solid!",
referencing the visual field in which he is situated.
J: "and then...""
F: "blood, guts, the incessant rhythm of breathing, bacteria, weakness, do you ever feel off? ever?"
J: "well, when I glimpse my part in it all...Can we change the subject."
J: "hey listen to this: ...(listening to traffic passing by)
(Time passes)
J: "and I'm thinking..." then raises his hand to his mouth in shock, and remains frozen for an attenuated period.
Observing J's realization of his surroundings, F responds:
"you know, it can lift you out of anything, launch you in ways you've never imagined, don't ever forget that, don't get sucked in...".
Production, editing play;
The slow motion sequences have been created by using an old-school fly-wheel, analogous to the fluctuating velocities of 'scratching' vinyl as it spins
on a DJ's turntable. {Bowie Dj'd both on radio (CITR) and at a night club (Faces, Vancouver)in the 1080's before she started her BFA and production of her installations}.
Layout/gear:
This piece uses five projectors. One (designed and built by the artist) projects the still, continuous 360 degree panorama.
This enveloping image is hazy and saturated with colour. A timed pair of slide projectors superimposes traffic, moving incrementally
before them as they wait at the red light. Two small video projectors cast the two subjects, superimposed into the two cars where they
would have appeared at this intersection. Because this installation is 360 degrees, the viewer is free to move about the room
and cast their attention in various directions.
