Art Installation by Fiona Tann
https://fionatan.nl/work/gray-glass
3 channel 4K video installation
Black & white, 3 x mono
20 min. 33 sec. loop
4K video projector, 2 flatscreen monitors (47 inch), 3 media players, 3 hifi speakers, 1 surround amplifier,
sync network, 1 white projection screen min. dimensions 350 cm wide
Brief Description
The Western idea of landscape and nature was shaped significantly by Romanticism. During this period artists often used a ‘Gray Glass’, a pocket-size black mirror. Named after the English poet Thomas Gray (1716–1771), the dark surface reduced the colour range, making it easier to render the landscape as an image. Large Italian mirrors were so expensive at the time that they had to be transported across the Alps on foot. The 4K digital film installation Gray Glass accompanies such a wayfarer on his Alpine journey. For this work, Tan has shot impressive black-and-white footage in the environs of Salzburg. Like an all-seeing eye, the mirror reflects the landscape back onto itself.