Evanescence

Ice/Thaw – Vaavatnet, Norway. This arose out of a commission to travel to Norway. 60% of Norwegians have ‘huts’ (small wooden houses) in the countryside where they spend much time with their families in nature and relative isolation. The Norwegian landscape contains great drama, but an intensity of experience was felt most acutely at the site of a mountain ice lake called Vaavatnet (Snillfjord, Soer Troendelag). The work consists of close-up observations of melting, the slow and steady rhythm of the drip-thaw, with great sheets of ice and snow covered over with a thin shimmering layer of water.

Runtime: 9m 20s

To see the full online screener, please contact me to request a link and password.

This work was produced from a period of total absorption in the act of observation, a point where critical detachment, thought and selfhood become suspended. The final work was authored as a series of five ‘movements’. Each movement lasts between one and three minutes on a continuous loop. Individual movements can be shown on single or multiple screen systems.

This work was produced during a period of collaborative practice with the artist Alexander Hamilton.

It is available on a designed four screen display with built in media player to be wall mounted or stand mounted, or as a single channel film of 9 minutes.

Available screening formats:
SD digital video. Source format: DV Pal 720×576

Credits: Camera, editing and sound: Richard Ashrowan