Suspended Motion Series I-IV

Suspended Motion Series I: II, 14 x 24 inches, 2013 Suspended Motion Series I: I, 24 x 14 inches, 2013 Suspended Motion Series I: III, 14 x 24 inches, 2013 Suspended Motion Series I: IV, 14 x 24 inches, 2013 Suspended Motion Series II: I,  14 x 24 inches, 2013 Suspended Motion Series II: III,  14 x 24 inches, 2013 Suspended Motion Series II: Scroll I, 24 x 144 inches, 2014 Suspended Motion Series IV: Scroll II, 24 x 144 inches, 2014 Suspended Motion Series III: I, 18 x 24 inches, 2014 Suspended Motion Series III: II, 18 x 24 inches, 2014 Suspended Motion Series III: III, 18 x 24 inches, 2014 Suspended Motion Series III: IV, 18 x 24 inches, 2014 Suspended Motion Series IV: I, 14 x 24 inches, February 2015 Suspended Motion Series IV: II, 24 x 18 inches, February 2015 Suspended Motion Series IV: III, 12 x 32 inches, March 2015 Suspended Motion Series IV: IV, 40 x 28 inches, May 2015 Suspended Motion Series IV: V, 24 x 72 inches, June 2015 Suspended Motion Series IV: Scroll I, 84 x 88 inches, May 2015 Suspended Motion Series IV: Scroll II, 44 x 90 inches, June 2015

 

Works in the Suspended Motion Series act as records of human movement, taking form as still images, videos, and interactive installations. Inspired in part by early image compositing techniques and the chronophotographic studies of Etienne-Jules Marey and Eadweard Muybridge, the work pursues my interest in depicting the body in motion in a way that cannot be perceived naturally and that expands our scope of visual reasoning. Like those late 19th c. technicians, as well as the Futurist artists of the early 20th century, I am inspired by new and accessible technologies that enable alternative presentations of human experience. Since 2013 I have developed four series of videos and prints that vary in style and execution, but all share these same aesthetic and conceptual themes. Included below are still images from each of the series, which were created by arranging selected sequences of video frames to suggest a record of performative movements.

The prints and videos in the Suspended Motion Series function to some extent like abstracted portraits, records of motion that bear signifiers of an individual but are too abstract to be truly representational. The work captures a motion signature, or the traces of form that define an individual. At the same time, that unique form is skewed and begins to suggest a more universal representation. In this way, works in the Suspended Motion Series allow viewers to connect through the commonality of movement as they recognize the humanness in the images and begin to contemplate the suspended moments that seemingly transcend human experience. Viewers are able to participate in the work at multiple levels, be it physically effecting it in an interactive installation environment, or simply being drawn into the work and finding the instances of beauty and human expression that speak to them.

 

Suspended Motion Series videos

Series I

The Suspended Motion Series I videos document my initial experimentation with the DepthKit system, and the corresponding still images serve as alternate documentation of that exploration. I captured short sequences of myself performing different types of motion for the camera while wearing reflective costume materials to create a rich palette of colorful, dynamic motion in the sequences.

-May 2013

 

 

 

Series II

An excerpt from my first music video I made using footage generated by the DepthKit video system. I captured myself performing to Flume's Holdin' On and experimented in post-production with various camera angles and color effects. I used the frames from this video to create the Suspended Motion Series II prints and scrolls.

-August 2013

 

 

 

Series III: Descending

This video was incorporated into an interactive installation that pays homage to early 20th century artists and technicians who, during a time of accelerated technological development, sought to represent movement in response to new understandings of human perception. Futurist and Cubist artists responded to composited photo images developed by technicians like Eadweard Muybridge, rendering abstract figure studies that depicted forms in motion from multiple perspectives at once. Marcel Duchamp’s 1912 painting Nude Descending a Staircase remains as the premier example of such work. This video attempts to recreate Duchamp’s work in a contemporary context, where the figure remains in an infinite state of descent. Music by sound artist Justin Zupnick. 

-May 2014

 

 

Prints of selected Suspended Motion Series works available in the shop