Equator (still)

Digital video loop, 2:14, 2010. Created with the support of the Film/Video Studio Program, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio. Special thanks to Mike Olenick, Paul Hill, Jennifer Lange, and Bill Horrigan. On view at The Box, Wexner Center, from October 1 to October 31, 2010.



Interview with Jennifer Lange, Curator of the Film/Video Studio Program, Wexner Center for the Arts:

Your body of work includes painting, sculpture, video, and installation. What’s the interplay between these different mediums?

Amy Yoes: One of the common threads is the idea of images in sequence. Paintings and photographs suggest a past and future action, like stills from a film do. I often have a mental soundtrack going on for each piece, so synesthesia plays a part, and moving into video allows me to bring out the sound. Distinctions between disciplines erode as a natural consequence of working in many media, as ideas tend to unfold one from another and the shifts become organic. Facets of the same world are manifested in different ways.

The palette in Equator is so painterly. Can you talk about the use of color, tone, texture and light?

Limited color allows for spacial confluences that are both unified and simultaneously fractured. It brings situations captured from the real world or from constructed sets into a tonal consistency that emphasizes abstraction. The passages that are animated in stop-motion use hand-made shapes, or simple materials such as plexiglas, paper, tape. Each component of the set has been moved by hand countless times. The realities of such a low-tech enterprise, the not-so-smooth action of the animators, the fluctuating, random lighting conditions that I incorporate into the result -- they are all key elements of the painterly language I'm using. And so is the overall blueness of the piece, reminiscent of early hand-tinted experimental movies and of architectural blueprints.

What’s your approach to sound?

Sound, in combination with the visual, creates a foundation of authority that I find interesting to exploit. Echoing effects and reverbs push further the ambiguous scale of the set, suggesting the atmosphere of a huge space or a vast landscape. By contrast, a close sound perspective conveys a more intimate space. The soundtrack of Equator mixes digital instruments and sound effects, mostly recorded by me, some picked from libraries. Sounds are used to enhance specific movements, or changes in focus. Sudden shifts in exposure, and bumps to the set, get highlighted by equivalents. A narrative play of cause and effect emerges. The machine is running in perpetuity.

Though no visuals were shot at the Wexner Center, Equator really resonates with the de-constructivist architecture of this building. How do you see architecture in relation to your work?

Architecture is a stage set that anticipates interaction, and whose characteristics express the ambitions of a time and place. Structures in flux, like those in construction sites, illuminate the organic flow of cities. At the core of Equator’s structure are passages of architectural footage including metal window mullions that are used as framing devices and perspective cues. Their fragmentation enhances a sense of spacial disorientation.

Equator was made with the support of the Film/Video Studio Program over the past two years and your work with our editors Mike Olenick and Paul Hill became very collaborative. What was the process behind this piece? 

Unlike my other animations, which tend to be a pure record of action with little editing, Equator has a layered, collage aesthetic resulting from an intricate editing process. Numerous sequences are cut away and added to, resulting in unexpected collisions, mismatched perspectives, contrasting scales, shifts in texture, juxtaposition, and obliteration. Multiple vanishing points play out over time.

My installation and sculpture projects often involve research into materials and techniques, fabrication, and building. Collaboration plays a big role. Working with Mike and Paul during my residency allowed for an in-depth exploration of a complex editing process that echoes my approach to other media.