Surface Noise + Wave Data (Image + Sound) / European Museum Tour 2006-2008:
- Contemporary Visual Art Centre Vestylland Bøvlingbjerb, DENMARK
- Otpetchatki International Art Triennial, Vyhod Media-Arts Centre, Petrozavodsk, RUSSIA
- Akademija Centre for Visual Research, Belgrade, SERBIA
- Museum of the City of Skopje, MACEDONIA
- Regional Art Museum Josip Bepo Benkovic, HERCEG-NOVI
“Lethe. No living river is called Lethe by the Greeks; Lethe is water of oblivion, a river in Hades, the water of which produced, in those who drank it, forgetfulness of the past.”
– Marijke de Wit / from Crossing the River Lethe
“Besant confronts these new dimensions of experience with the conviction that, through engagement, we can reclaim what has been lost. – Prof. Walter Jule / from Second Nature
The exhibition is made up of large graphic images constructed by the artist from several photo-based sources and embrace the notion of integrating visual and sound interference and disturbance interpreted from distorting audio wave date. Physical subjects are situated into water environments (oceans, rivers, pools and bath tubs) and asked to consider themselves not so much as figures, but more like geography; streams, inlets, tides, depths, shallows, bays and promontories. Photograph resources are later worked on to create multiple portraits of each person based on the theme.
Images are output in advanced digital technologies onto scrim veil materials that move slightly when installed and echo water surface tension.
A soundtrack accompanies the installation which melds together source sound bytes from Canada’s Kootenay Lake and from under the bridges of Venice, with a reconstructed spoken component from Isobella Couperthwaite Kreizel’s reading of water definitions from the dictionary. Besant gathered the sound resources from his travels, and worked in collaboration with music composer Paul Connolly, who orchestrated the final sound compositions to create - Body of Water.
Development stage images were previewed at The Siggraph Conference on Digital Imaging + Interactive Technologies in Los Angeles, USA 2004; and at The Japan International Media Arts Festival in Tokyo, at the Metropolitan Museum of Photography in 2005.
Surface Noise
Counting To Zero
Seismic
Subliminal
Bridge of Naiades
Diversion + Course
Medusa Gaze
Signal and Response
Somnambulist
Constituent Elements
Utterance
Undulatory Movement
Disintegration Principle
Cloud
Perpetual Night
Equal Distance
One of Two
Sturm und Drang
Currents
Coincidence of Drowning
Absence
Sirena Site Plan / Venice
Brown Hotel Ascension Site Plan / London
Russia installation
Der freie Will Site Plan / Berlin
Site Plan / Tokyo
Site Plan / Calgary
Site Plan / Germany
Site Plan / Kyoto
