Homage to the Wind

HD video
16:09
2012

These videos borrow the structure of Josef Albers Homage to the Square. In the 1950s, Albers was questioning how we see color, using juxtaposition and setting to challenge what we think of as “yellow” or “gray” or “green.” Using his structure of nested rectangles, I wanted to challenge my own presumptions about my environment. What do I think of as “sky” or “ocean” or “trees”? These short videos are studies to that effect.

What emerged was not what I’d expected. Each of these five sections – sky, grass, ocean, tide pool and trees – revealed themselves to be portraits of the wind. So much of what I was seeing – color, texture, granularity – was moderated by the constantly moving atmosphere. The presence – or absence – of the wind could not be extracted from my experience. In one sense, these videos became studies in learning to see the invisible.