Lynette Wallworth - Damavand Mountain

17 Nov - 13 Dec 06 | New Crowned Hope Festival, Wien, AT

Damavand Mountain is an elegant and simple video installation based on imagery filmed in the small Iranian mountain village of Poloor, north east of Tehran, during an artist residency in 2004.

A series of images track the cycle of a short lived poppy flower, a woman and a snow covered mountain. Gradually, the visual correspondence between the woman in chador, the flower, the clouds and the mountain peak emerge. The cloth of the chador is carved by the wind. The clouds caress the mountain peak. The poppy’s fragile skin is transformed by light. Invisible forces cause something to dance, our eyes note the movement but distanced by physical space our skin does not feel the cold or warmth of this invisible force. Only the garments in the piece: petals, chador and clouds reveal the evidence of their response to a force that shapes them daily. They adjust to it, yet there is a sense of endurance here – in human nature and in nature itself.

Below each video monitor lies a vessel containing black liquid holding a mirror reflection of the footage above it. These secondary alter images suggest some darker unseen forces within the timeless, haunting and beautiful imagery above; in this black liquid we sense the substantial global and governmental powers that shape everyday life in contemporary Iran.

Commissioned by New Crowned Hope
Produced by Forma
Supported by Australia Council Fellowship New Media Arts Board and Visual Arts Board

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Lynette Wallworth

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