Flow+Floe | A video experiment

ExperimentationPosted on:

A short film by Jeff Gwegan.

— Floe+Floe is a video essay I had in mind for a long time. In this experiment, I have imagined a collaboration work with the music composer Philip Glass.

Philip Glass | Chuck Close (1969)
Philip Glass, a portrait by Chuck Close (1969)

FLOW+FLOE is a very first attempt in moving pictures and it seems to me that this so vivid work could only be illustrated by movement. I had to get out of a visual movement limited to two dimensions. The auditory would necessarily have prevailed, as the work is so heady.

I just used a half part of the second movement named “Floe” that is in my opinion an obsessive sound labyrinth, a monument made of multiple independent, systematic layers that can lead to another dimension or to madness. The opposition of fast and slow visual rhythms evokes feverish, obsessive dreams from which you wake up exhausted.

Musical partition | Movement from Floe by Philip Glass
Floe | Works (1981) | 2 flutes, 2 sopranos, 2 tenors, 2 horns, DX7 synthetizer.
The repetition of the series in Floe’s writing corresponds perfectly to the nested and layered structures of my work, the complex lines tending towards infinity.

 

Equafortis#1 by Jeff Gwegan
Equafortis 1 by Jeff Gwegan | A series of 4 drawings and 2 paintings | 2017 | 95x130cm

Among others, one of the main ingredient of Flow+Floe is a drawing from the series Equafortis I created in 2017.

I have the project to also try a new animated visual experience illustrating the sound piece “Music for 18 Musicians” by Steve Reich, leader of minimalist music.

Music for 18 musicians Steve Reich (intro)