erin elyse burns | Vignettes

Coincidence of Molecules

A conversation between Tessa Bolsover and Erin Elyse Burns

It’s a brisk winter evening – startlingly cold for Seattle. On a sidewalk in Capitol Hill, a group of people is huddled in front of an apartment building. There’s a quiet shuffle punctuating the crowd’s tempo – bodies shifting weight from one foot to the next, gently trying to ward off the chill. Just overhead are two windows filled with a video diptych that has a pace not unlike our own. Continuously moving over time, changing from image to image, and punctuated with evocative, fragmentary poetry. Tessa Bolsover’s Soon our bodies will be other buildings, on display at Vignettes’ Marquee exhibition series, calls upon environmental, molecular processes that evolve subtly. I have just returned to the Northwest after an intense stint in Nevada, saying goodbye to my mother, and feeling fairly certain I will not see her again. Grief is heavy on my mind. In Tessa’s project statement, she writes “In times of grief I turn to the idea of the body as a collection of materials. Our bodies exist for only a brief moment: a coincidence of molecules, soon to disseminate into countless other forms.” As I watch the video cycle through its patterned phases, I am struck by its lack of emotivity. A stick dragged across the snow. Deep sea divers swimming gracefully. Abstract macro imagery that looks like ice and snow through a microscope, yet I can’t help but see a pattern of human ears. Cells filmed through a microscope. A shadow falls upon a tree in birch forest. The camera enjoys the act of looking — the imagery inhabits real time. Through the lens of a biological perspective, I view beautiful imagery with a cool, scientific tone. I leave the night wondering if this is particular to me, or if Tessa has chosen an objective position as a strategy for the content of the work.

Erin Elyse Burns: The languorous imagery in Soon our bodies will be other buildings creates a certain calm that strikes me as reserved, almost without attachment. Will you speak to the emotional tone of your piece? Am I off in reading it as perhaps implementing the objectivity of a scientist?

Tessa Bolsover: I find a deep calm in the acknowledgement of the body as an entity within a large network. For me, observing becomes a kind of ritual to reintegrate with the strange and beautiful system of molecules of which my body is a part. I don’t see it as detachment as much as an attempt to empathize with the objectivity of the world beyond my ego.

Recently I’ve been reading a lot about the idea of Decreation (as re-defined in Anne Carson’s book of the same title), which basically means stripping away the self in order to get closer to the unknown (i.e. god). Observing the transience of materials is a way of stepping away from my mind and into my body, so to speak.

EEB: What lead you to utilize a looping imagery structure similar to the technique of phasing, as established by minimalist composers like Terry Riley and Steve Reich? Do you have a musical background?

TB: While working on this project I found the video editing process similar to the process of composing music. The concept of phasing had been floating around in my head for weeks, so utilizing an interpretation of the technique in my video looping process seemed like a natural fit. One of the main themes I was working with is the idea that molecules are constantly re-forming in various combinations, meaning that on a large scale, each object or entity can be reduced to a fleeting encounter between molecules, each following its own trajectory. Traditionally in phase music, two musicians simultaneously perform the same score at slightly different tempos, so that over time the relationship between the two players is realigned repeatedly, swaying between unison, echoing, and doubling. I wanted to extend this metaphor into my work by looping the two videos side by side at slightly different tempos so that the relationship between the two screens would change with each loop. Images and text fall in and out of unison periodically, putting the same emphasis on both order and disorder.

EEB: You work primarily in still photography – what has exploring the medium of video been like for you?

TB: I’m pretty new to making videos — it definitely had its share of challenges and opened up new ways of experimenting within time-based parameters, something I don’t usually get to do directly through my still photography.

EEB: You use both found footage and imagery you’ve captured – how do you approach this collage-like structure?

TB: Collage definitely feels like the right word for it. The footage I captured was a collection of gestures exploring the temporary physicality of my body within various landscapes. The rest of the imagery I collected through public domain archives online. Most of the videos I pulled from included little or no information on what the images were and why they were made — I found the combination of these sourceless videos and my own recordings an interesting juxtaposition and a way to contextualize the issue of interiority vs. exteriority.

EEB: Will you speak to the poetry you’ve written for this work?

TB: Writing is a huge part of my practice, although it rarely makes its way into my visual work. I wanted the text to feel like a collection of fragments, similar to the video segments. I was also thinking a lot about the way meaning is created through juxtaposition, and calling into question the extent to which we can read images like text and text like images.

soon our bodies will be other buildings excerpt, two channel video, 2017

Vignettes ‘Marquee’ installation excerpt / Seattle, Washington, February 2017

EXPORTED: Erin Elyse Burns at The Westfjords Artist Residency in Thingeyri, Iceland

Seattle-based artist Erin Elyse Burns is spending some time at The Westfjords Artist Residency and being a photo / video artist, we couldn’t wait to see what she would create in the gorgeous landscape of Iceland. Enjoy today’s EXPORTED, part 1 with Erin as she shares photos exploring the body within landscape as well as shares some behind-the-scenes shots of what happens at a residency, including photo shoots at 2 am. Thanks for sharing, Erin! You are inspiring complete wanderlust over here.

The Westfjords Artist Residency is in its inaugural year – the pilot program. After this session, the founders will develop year round programming that involves one May/October session with a large group of artists like now, and then smaller longer residencies throughout the year (no residencies will be held during the high tourist season of June – August.) The residency founders are Samantha Albert, Janne Kristensen and Wouter Van Hoeymissen. Janne and Wouter are a couple from Denmark and Belgium, respectively, and have lived in the village of Thingeyri for 10 years. Samantha is from Lichtenstein and Seattle, and just moved to Iceland after 8 years of regular visits to the area.

The first cohort of residents are from around the world: Iceland, New York, Maine, Washington, Arizona, Japan, England, Germany and Canada. It is a cross disciplinary group of ten artists practicing design, architecture, sound art, photography, video, installation, painting, fiber arts, ethnobotanical illustration, volcanology and poetry. The artists names are: David Bruce, Erin Elyse Burns, Mary Fran Cardamone, Porsteinn Eyfjord, Adam Hilborn, Maki Kaoru, Julie Sasse, Yasuaki Tanago, Alex C. Todaro, and Fabian Wadsworth.

The images below are part of in- progress work in which I am investigating relationships to the landscape through physical interactions. I am struck by how often the land looks animal-like. Grass becomes the breathing fur of a large cat, mounds of kelp are reminiscent of Icelandic myths of sea monsters. And the blue of the near constant light! The darkest hour is currently about 2am but the sky is never black and the phases of light move so slowly and gradually that the changes are almost difficult to perceive until they happen. 4am light looks a bit like 11am in Seattle.

Also included are a few “behind the scenes” images in Thingeyri (the village has a population of about 250 people during the height of summer), the residency workspaces, living areas and the residents at work or attending residency events.