stevewilde.com
  • HOME
  • AVAILABLE WORKS
    • SERIES: SECTIONED IMPERFECTIONS
    • SERIES: DANTE'S CAR PARK
    • SERIES: UGLY BEAUTIFUL
  • ARCHIVE
  • PRINTS
  • NEWS

Watching Pixels Dry

3/12/2020

0 Comments

 
Six years ago, contemplating the phrase "watching paint dry" as a reference to how boring something could be and whether one persons boredom was another persons meditation I came up with an idea for an art installation. It would involve sitting in a room where one of the walls had recently been painted and watching the paint dry! This threw up several issues: What colour wall? Would the smell of paint be distracting, where on earth could I do this?

The first question was answered at a yoga class when I learned about the colours relating to the seven chakras. There you go, I'd paint seven walls in adjoining rooms! This didn't resolve the second or third question though.

Time and again I would be browsing through notes I had made, of unrealisable art projects, when I started thinking about all of the reality TV shows and were they not the equivalent of watching paint dry? Or those Slow TV films of full length train journeys, they are kind of meditative aren't they? Maybe I could digitize the idea. Sitting in a room with large screens displaying a wall of drying paint would get over the problem of paint smell but not the issue of where to host it. I also considered streaming webcams of canvases drying at home, but didn't really have the space to do it.

Years passed, Covid happened and people really were contemplating boredom and loneliness and staring at walls. And if anyone could get out now, would they opt for sitting in another room staring at a different wall? So, why not put the idea online and replace the paint with pixels? A screen of solid colour in a Jarman-esque style or something like electronic Rothko's, or a nod to James Turrell?

Each chakra also has a resonating tone that accompanies it. For example, the root chakra is the note C at 128, 256 or 512Hz. I needed to accompany each colour with a corresponding tone. Which is where Alex Jacobs stepped in by allowing me to use his beautiful Shruti Box drones. You can buy his work over on Bandcamp

So, here we are, a somewhat compromised version of the original idea, but it has got it out of my system for a bit. Watching Pixels Dry: 7 Meditations on Boredom. I made the visuals in Photoshop as it seemed easier than learning Premiere Pro but the results seem to have rendered somewhat clunkier than I'd hoped. But I won't blame the tools! It's a compromised concept after a all. I've kept them to around the seven minute mark, with 2 minutes of the one solid colour, then introducing slight fluctuations, which may not be as subtle as I'd hoped. Alex's drone pieces are 11 minutes and eleven seconds long but I thought even seven minutes of video might be more than enough for most.

You can find them on my newly created Videos page. They are posted to Vimeo and You Tube at the moment and I'm going to attempt to put them on IGTV before the week is out too.

Watching Pixels Dry - Seven meditations on Boredom [video]
0 Comments

Latest Exhibition Online Now

1/12/2020

0 Comments

 
.The Brixton Blog & Bugle Art Show is now online and will be for the duration of December.
My two pieces are right in front of you when you go through the "doors". Be patient, the gallery takes a while to load. You can take a guided tour or make your own way round the 70 artworks on display. Clicking on a piece gives you details of the artist, medium, size, price and contact details
Brixton Blog & Bugle Art Show 2020
0 Comments
    Exhibitions
    CURRENT
    New Faces 2023, Sprout Arts, SW16, January 17th - 28th
    FORTHCOMING
    WILDE | WOODS [Pop-up Gallery/Shop] Boxpark, Shoreditch, April 3rd - 9th
    Liminal Life, [Solo Show], Sprout Arts, SW16, May 23rd - June 3rd
    Solo Show, Woodfield Pavilion, SW16, June 29th -July 17th

    Categories

    All
    Artists
    Commissions
    Events
    Exhibitions
    Galleries
    Graphic Design
    Music
    News
    Painting
    Photography
    Printing
    Sculpture
    Steve Wilde Prints
    T-Shirts
    Videos

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019

Site powered by Weebly. Managed by 34SP.com
  • HOME
  • AVAILABLE WORKS
    • SERIES: SECTIONED IMPERFECTIONS
    • SERIES: DANTE'S CAR PARK
    • SERIES: UGLY BEAUTIFUL
  • ARCHIVE
  • PRINTS
  • NEWS