Statement: "Traces"
From early 2009 onwards, what started out as a simple experiment was elaborated into three concurrent series. Keeping in line with the use of time and motion, the themes developed include “Time as Motion”, “Time as Repetition” and “Time as Change”, with the over-arching title: “Traces”. In this way, time actually becomes a medium, like a paintbrush, and the camera the tool to capture the results.
I begin by taking a number of photographs of one scene (changing scenes or moving when required), ranging from 12 to over 300 images. With computer software, they are batch-processed, focusing mainly on altering color and saturation, but never modifying the relative contrast between photographs. They are then placed into almost-square digital canvases, and then printed as canvas prints and mounted.
1. “Time as Motion” deals with the pieces driven by clear sense of motion in terms of camera-work or the objects in each frame. This series experiments with the visual perception of motion, displaying images taken over a length of time simultaneously, versus the linear method of video or stop-motion film. Pieces emphasize the concept that while motion occurs, repetition and patterns eventually emerge from everything.
2. “Time as Repetition” works with photographs that do not show large or profound changes in consecutive frames. Instead, each photograph is only subtly different, and the final pieces emphasize continuity and repetition rather than change. Pieces in this series work with form and the deconstruction of scenes by repetition.
3. “Time as Change” is very similar to the series “Time as Motion”, but is more subtle. The break-through piece in this series was “Blue I”, a somewhat monochromatic piece that shows the transition from an evening sky to a night sky, using manually activated time-lapse photographs. In this, the basic form of the frames stay the same, but colors and lighting slowly adjust themselves throughout, allowing the viewer to appreciate the sometimes unnoticeable Change in our world.
Yu Jie Wu
25th May ‘09
Last edited: 16th June ‘09
I begin by taking a number of photographs of one scene (changing scenes or moving when required), ranging from 12 to over 300 images. With computer software, they are batch-processed, focusing mainly on altering color and saturation, but never modifying the relative contrast between photographs. They are then placed into almost-square digital canvases, and then printed as canvas prints and mounted.
1. “Time as Motion” deals with the pieces driven by clear sense of motion in terms of camera-work or the objects in each frame. This series experiments with the visual perception of motion, displaying images taken over a length of time simultaneously, versus the linear method of video or stop-motion film. Pieces emphasize the concept that while motion occurs, repetition and patterns eventually emerge from everything.
2. “Time as Repetition” works with photographs that do not show large or profound changes in consecutive frames. Instead, each photograph is only subtly different, and the final pieces emphasize continuity and repetition rather than change. Pieces in this series work with form and the deconstruction of scenes by repetition.
3. “Time as Change” is very similar to the series “Time as Motion”, but is more subtle. The break-through piece in this series was “Blue I”, a somewhat monochromatic piece that shows the transition from an evening sky to a night sky, using manually activated time-lapse photographs. In this, the basic form of the frames stay the same, but colors and lighting slowly adjust themselves throughout, allowing the viewer to appreciate the sometimes unnoticeable Change in our world.
Yu Jie Wu
25th May ‘09
Last edited: 16th June ‘09