Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
IN BARDO: ACT TWO (2014) 11 minutes, FIGURE TWO | BALTIC 39
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Text accompanying exhibition, edited by Katherine Welsh and Hazel Brill courtesy of BALTIC 39, 2014
Hazel Brill’s recent, immersive installations encompass animation, projection, sound and text. Using computer-generated animation and projection mapping programs, her work inhabits both physical and virtual realms. Developed from ongoing research into online communication platforms, Brill attempts to make sculptural the experience of mediated reality prevalent in contemporary online society. Her work is a place where past and present, the authentic and the inauthentic meet. The hierarchy of images in the digital age and their circulation and exchange are all facets explored within the work. Brill examines the possibility that the web is not a place of representation but of primary experience.
In recent work such as In Bardo 2014, the artist creates a stage set for a narrative-based video installation, with plaster casts of classical Greek statues utilised as an illustrative anchor point within the story. A monologue is presented over a montage of images, collaged from various online sources. The statues and animated objects become props, actors, sets and avatars in a video that is unveiled over the skin of the sculptures.
In Bardo: Act Two, Brill’s work for FIGURE TWO, is an extension, or second act to In Bardo 2014. Bardo is a Tibetan word given to the notion of a liminal or transitory state, derived from the Buddhist belief in the afterlife. Inspired by this concept, Brill’s work is set and exists in such a state of limbo between the material and the digital. The idea has stemmed from ongoing research into the sacred in cyberspace, where online platforms are used to induce spiritual experiences. The work examines this state of flux, between the virtual and physical, between logic and the absurd. It is in this state of flux where contexts converge.
The installation centres around what the artist believes to be a statue of Hermes, the Greek god of transitions and boundaries, also known as the ‘messenger god’. The statue is most likely a plaster cast made from a copy of a Roman era, Greek bronze statue from the fifth century BCE. Like a stage set representing the ruins of a Roman villa, on the floor are fragments from other statues including Hermes’ hand, holding his herald’s stick, a symbolic item of the Greek god. Hermes is represented as a Psychopomp, who accompanies the souls of the dead into the underworld.
The narrative examines the preservation of stories and myths, and their appropriation within contemporary culture. Sources for the narrative include online forums, mythology enthusiasts, 90s web pages, online tutorials, Wikipedia: anything that is overtly honest about its lack of authenticity. We are relayed an experience in which we believe we are gaining knowledge about Hermes within an online context: a context of information saturation and sensory overload.
Taking the structure of both a computer game and an online tutorial, an instructive voice provides ways to think clearly, using absurd methods in which to do so. As we learn pockets of information about Hermes from the monotone voiceover, more probing themes emerge concerning the bizarre occurrences which materialise when processing and filtering mass stimuli. Contradictory to the visuals, the narrator suggests sensory deprivation as a means to overcome this.
Scroll down for photos and video documentation extract
>Click here for interview interview<
Text accompanying exhibition, edited by Katherine Welsh and Hazel Brill courtesy of BALTIC 39, 2014
Hazel Brill’s recent, immersive installations encompass animation, projection, sound and text. Using computer-generated animation and projection mapping programs, her work inhabits both physical and virtual realms. Developed from ongoing research into online communication platforms, Brill attempts to make sculptural the experience of mediated reality prevalent in contemporary online society. Her work is a place where past and present, the authentic and the inauthentic meet. The hierarchy of images in the digital age and their circulation and exchange are all facets explored within the work. Brill examines the possibility that the web is not a place of representation but of primary experience.
In recent work such as In Bardo 2014, the artist creates a stage set for a narrative-based video installation, with plaster casts of classical Greek statues utilised as an illustrative anchor point within the story. A monologue is presented over a montage of images, collaged from various online sources. The statues and animated objects become props, actors, sets and avatars in a video that is unveiled over the skin of the sculptures.
In Bardo: Act Two, Brill’s work for FIGURE TWO, is an extension, or second act to In Bardo 2014. Bardo is a Tibetan word given to the notion of a liminal or transitory state, derived from the Buddhist belief in the afterlife. Inspired by this concept, Brill’s work is set and exists in such a state of limbo between the material and the digital. The idea has stemmed from ongoing research into the sacred in cyberspace, where online platforms are used to induce spiritual experiences. The work examines this state of flux, between the virtual and physical, between logic and the absurd. It is in this state of flux where contexts converge.
The installation centres around what the artist believes to be a statue of Hermes, the Greek god of transitions and boundaries, also known as the ‘messenger god’. The statue is most likely a plaster cast made from a copy of a Roman era, Greek bronze statue from the fifth century BCE. Like a stage set representing the ruins of a Roman villa, on the floor are fragments from other statues including Hermes’ hand, holding his herald’s stick, a symbolic item of the Greek god. Hermes is represented as a Psychopomp, who accompanies the souls of the dead into the underworld.
The narrative examines the preservation of stories and myths, and their appropriation within contemporary culture. Sources for the narrative include online forums, mythology enthusiasts, 90s web pages, online tutorials, Wikipedia: anything that is overtly honest about its lack of authenticity. We are relayed an experience in which we believe we are gaining knowledge about Hermes within an online context: a context of information saturation and sensory overload.
Taking the structure of both a computer game and an online tutorial, an instructive voice provides ways to think clearly, using absurd methods in which to do so. As we learn pockets of information about Hermes from the monotone voiceover, more probing themes emerge concerning the bizarre occurrences which materialise when processing and filtering mass stimuli. Contradictory to the visuals, the narrator suggests sensory deprivation as a means to overcome this.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
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Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy Colin Davison. Courtesy BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.