NOW YOU SEE ME
These video installations are an appreciation of the small and ever changing world I found at my feet.
The shown footage is from a small selection made out of my visual archive, which I’ve accumulated over the years. They are footages that have been taken while going for a walk in forests, parks, or my neighborhood. The subjects seen in the videos are pretty mundane, but often overlooked. Especially in the modern western world where the emphasis lies in the bigger and bolder. With this video installation I want the viewer to experience a moment of wonder and let them see the greatness in the small details that’s around them.
Beeld: Thomas van Schaik
When going for a stroll through the park, enjoying the garden, or walking down the street you might notice the trees that you pass, but how much is really known about them? They might seem static, only changing their appearance in foliage, however trees are very much alive, growing and changing just like we are.
To be able to see trees as individuals, we need to be aware of a different flow of time. Not the fast forward human timeflow, but a more slow and entangled view of time.
Every tree has their own experiences and stories. Even on the outermost layer of the tree, the bark, there is a lot going on. Not only the processes of the tree itself, but also of the other organisms living in this little world. For example the ants who construct some kind of highway on the trunk, as it being the home to many lichens and other organisms.
Looking at it in such a way, the tree becomes some kind of universe of its own. On a micro-level there is so much to explore. Something that seemed so static at first, suddenly reveals itself as a space with many hidden events.
And just like the way a fingerprint differentiates per person (by genetic influences as well as influences from the outside), so does the bark on each tree. Trees of the same species do have similarities in their bark’s pattern, but they are never identical to each other.
