I have drawn a swamp, its trees are twisted and unwelcoming, as if the onlooker is not invited to the strange land. The installation’s limbo landscape is further exaggerated by various shades of ink wash, the trees’ bark is feathered outward to create a sense of wooded scales and the waters have an inky black depth, seemingly devoid of life. This fabricated Landscape is a dreary home for several uncanny creatures, the biome is shaped by its own denizens, whereas the denizens are also shaped by the biome. This creates an interdependent relationship that is necessary for to survival of both.
The Walven is a wolf and raven morphed together to create a griffin-like creature with claws that have a hard carapace made of metal pen nibs. By taking keyframes from a rotoscoped animation, an animation created by tracing over video, of my dog. The completed the animation will be projected on the dreary Landscape itself, with the use of projections as an idea that was spurred by the ongoing pandemic.
Existentialism and believing in divinity, are two contrasting ideas that I’m using used to create a visual juxtaposition. Divinity is a construct created by humanity that gives people purpose, but Existentialism is about people finding their own purpose without divine power guiding them. By creating a pantheon (or bestiary) of creatures with their own functionality, I’m creating a construct of belief much like the gods in Greek and Roman Mythos. The swamp is an unforgiving landscape that provides an environment for living things that need to figure out how to strive on their own, thus forcing these creatures to adapt, or else they will flounder.