Hold: Vessel 1 and 2 by Lynette Wallworth :: until August 17, 2008 :: Mostly Mozart Festival, The Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, New York, US :: Also in the exhibition: Ryoji Ikeda — data.tron; Gina Czarnecki — Contagion; Lynette Wallworth — Invisible by Night (solo exhibition); Lynette Wallworth — Evolution of Fearlessness; Ryoji Ikeda — V≠L (solo exhibition); Lynette Wallworth — Invisible by Night; Mike Stubbs — Cultural Quarter.

Hold: Vessel 1 and 2 (2001 & 2007) brings together two immersive installation works that explore the intimacy and immensity of the natural world and our relationship to it. The audience is invited to carry a glass bowl into a darkened space and ‘catch’ projected images of microscopic marine life and telescopic astronomical imagery in a lens–shaped ’screen’. Hold uses moving image and technology to reveal the hidden intricacies of human immersion in the wide, complex world.

Hold: Vessel 1 features breathtaking imagery of microscopic marine life and telescopic astronomical imagery in a lens–shaped ’screen’. Hold: Vessel 2 updates this earlier version of the work with the addition of two newly commissioned video projections, to present five separate video pieces.

In creating these new projections, entitled Colonies and Light, Wallworth collaborated with specialist cinematographers, utilising current visioning technologies to produce intricate details of underwater marine life, recording how these environments have altered in the last six years.

The new projections for Hold: Vessel 2, also feature rare imagery of the 2004 Transit of Venus, an astronomical event which, in 1769, was used to compute the relative distance from the Earth to the sun, allowing calculation of the scale of the solar system. This event marked a pivotal moment in history when, for the first time, warring nations chose to cooperate in order to answer one of the leading scientific questions of the day. Wallworth makes reference to this global scientific co–operation and connects it to the effect of climate change on environments and marine species’ highly developed means of surviving in diverse communities.

Produced by Forma: Hold: Vessel 1, 2001 is courtesy of and commissioned by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, AU; Hold: Vessel 2, 2007 is commissioned by the British Film Institute.

Imagery for Hold: Vessel 2, 2007 comes from the following sources: David Hannan, Jeremy Pickett–Heaps, Dr Allan S. Jones, Australian Key Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, The University of Sydney, Rosemary Golding, School of Medical Sciences, The University of Sydney, Exploratorium, TRACE [Transition Region and Coronal Explorer], Stanford-Lockheed Institute for Space Research, NASA Small Explorer program2, NASA Hubble, hubblesite.org.

Photos: Colin Davison, courtesy of the National Glass Centre, Sunderland, UK (L) | Dave Morgan, courtesy of BFI, London, UK (R)

Related links:

Lynette Wallworth ›
Invisible by Night [various works] ›
Diary ›

Further information for presenters of Forma projects go to Professional ›