TOM LOVEDAY Polar Vortex 1 & 2
Image : Polar Vortex 1 Single-channel HD video 5mins 31sec 2015 Salon 2, Mount Victoria Manor (Hotel Etico)
Thumbnail: Polar Vortex 2 - Hudson River Single-channel HD video 29mins 36sec 2021 Salon 2, Mount Victoria Manor (Hotel Etico)
These two Polar Vortex films were made during the 2015 polar vortex, in the northern parts of America. New York reached -27 degrees, cold, even for the alienating world of Manhattan Island. People were dying in the streets, and there was a sense that the climate was fighting back. The skating rink behind the City Library filled with people eluding misery by gliding on the ice, seemingly transformed into new beings, adapting, enjoying, and living in this new climate, in a hopeful state. These joyous creatures were born by mirroring the icy scene along its liminal horizon. Although visually different from our human forms, they are made of the same stuff – they are light in the darkness.
Berlin Kaleidoscope Mitte and Tiergarten
2021, HD Video, 10 minutes
The kaleidoscope illustrates the image-forming properties of combined, inclined mirrors. If an object is placed between two mirrors inclined at right angles, an image is formed in each mirror. Each of these mirror images is in turn reflected in the other mirror, forming the appearance of four symmetrically placed objects. (Encyclopaedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/technology/kaleidoscope )
Mitte
Berlin’s inner suburb “Mitte” was once part of East Berlin. After the Berlin Wall came down in 1989 it became popular among many kinds of artists for its cheap rents and grunge atmosphere. In the early 2000s, it became a highly sought after and fashionable cultural environment. It has now become a beacon of highly priced Berlin real estate and subsequently has excluded most artists. Mitte, like most of Berlin, is an intensely lit kaleidoscopic experience overlaid with historical and political events in the progression from art to real estate.