Formation (Winter) | Remaining still (in a world of gestures)

From Stella Rosa McDonald…

Two reflective exhibitions on currently at Breezeblock visualize the tension between inertia and movement in distinct ways.

Mimi Tong’s Formation (Winter) documents the journey by ferry between Helsinki CBD and Suomenlinna Island in Finland. As the ferry pushed through the Gulf of Finland Sea, Tong captured the path of its movement through the frozen ice and snow. The resulting monochromatic video, inspired by the scroll format of Chinese painting, portrays the ferry as a giant scribe marking the surface of the sea and is an innovative reimagining of the processes of drawing.

Leahlani Johnson‘s Remaining still (in a world of gestures) is an expansion of her research into the “visual representation of the invisible realm” (Johnson once memorably exorcised the plinths in a gallery). In four distinct yet related installations, Johnson imagines stillness and movement as separate territories and uses the time-based medium of video as a counterpoint between the two. Two of the works loop footage of a fixed object, another animates static frames and in another, a still image is juxtaposed with moving footage. Remaining still (in a world of gestures) is a meditative video installation that plays with the kinetic harmony and discord between quietness and progress.

Until August 9th
Breezeblock, Potts Point
Pic credit: Mimi Tong, Formation (Winter), 2014. 3 channel video with audio, 4:3, XGA, 12 min variable loop. Courtesy of the artist.