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Chapel Gallery home to new interactive video art exhibit

May 23, 2016 | 9:54 AM

Step in to the vast space of the Chapel Gallery and you come face to face with a 10 foot screen of human emotion. 

Designed by artists Yoko Takashima and Ruby Arnold, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” unites human feeling and digital technology to display the fragility of the human condition through video and digital media.

The solo piece is an interactive video featuring an overlapping of subjects –people ranging in age, gender and ethnicity. “It speaks to shared experience,” Arnold said. “There is something we all share, and the struggle is part of it.”

The project is the culmination of two year’s work. Takashima was inspired to film 37 volunteers singing Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water. The video subjects are positioned intimately close to the camera and are filmed singing their hearts out as their eyes peer deeply in to the viewer’s.

Arnold said the song unites the viewers in a theme of human suffering and redemption; after watching the video she hopes the audience is inspired to look inward and discover themselves in a new way.

“Every time, you have a different selection of people singing the song.  And the machine comes up with different views of people as you sing the song. I’ve seen it a lot, and I can always watch it, because it’s always different.”

In fact, it is the audience which makes the work really come to life.  As the viewer steps toward the video, their movement attenuates the volume.  As you draw nearer, the voices become louder.  To retreat is to silence their song and the emotions instilled within it.

The landscape behind the singers changes as the song progresses from verse to chorus, spanning from sunsets to explosions.  The horrors of life interchange seamlessly with the blessedly serene, bringing home the idea of people’s triumph over fear when joined together in support and love.

According to Arnold, there’s an infinite number of ways to explore how people approach, encounter, embrace and overcome life’s circumstances and their technology makes it much more accessible to viewers.

“I see technology and different media as tools and I think it’s very exciting for artists. There is a lot of potential.  It is very new.  And there are all sorts of new avenues to explore.”

Takashima and Arnold’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” will be shown at the Chapel Gallery until June 30th.

Email: colleen.smith@jpbg.ca

Twitter: ColleenAJSmith