Shiva Lynn Burgos
18/3 to 20/3/2016
For the occasion of Sunday’s Screening #14, Gleichapel is pleased to present Shiva Lynn Burgos’ Half Life/Half Light: The Chemistry of Natural Forces an entirely analog slideshow of 80 images selected from the artist’s 35mm slide archives.
These slides were modified, altered and chemically transformed by Superstorm Sandy, which inundated New York City in late October 2012. Beyond an ordinary slideshow, these works, as Burgos states “are inspired by concepts of metamorphosis, mutation and degeneration as a natural precursor to evolution.” The projection reveals the nuances of this philosophy through the combination of these unforeseen alterations, projected light and the original image itself.
“The original images vary between photo experiments, landscapes and documentary. In the summer of 2013, while on an artistic residency in the US, I was able to treat the wet and mouldy slides and consider the loss of their first history, my history and understand this transcendence. Let’s surpass the backwards-reaching nostalgia of the decisive moment. The after-effects are freer, more like the vestige of a performance.”
The artist continues: ” The scientific processes in this case, caused primarily by ocean water, manipulate the film surface causing a chemical reaction. The liquefied layers of emulsion then redistribute themselves in an ordered fashion creating crystalline patterns and embedded artefacts. The resulting warp to the celluloid format shifts the focus to the third dimension when projected with light. This dimension is not static. We can take a journey within the image by gradually changing the focal plane. 3D + time – now we are into the 4th dimension. If we then consider what the layers of time 2 + process2 + light 2 + observation =… it raises a stirring question.”
Shiva Lynn Burgos (born 1972, New York) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working between London and Paris. She has exhibited extensively around the world and has been included in projects at the Louvre, The National Arts Theatre London, The Moscow Biennial and Lothringer13, Städtische Kunsthalle München and Hayward Gallery London. She is currently working on The Mariwai Project, an important exchange between cultures in transition in Papua New Guinea with the outside world. “Half Life/Half Light: The Chemistry of Natural Forces” is Ms. Burgos first solo project in France.
http://shivalynn.com
http://sundayscreening.com
Remerciements :
Miroiterie, Ferraris, Paris