Dwayne Martineau

Strange Journey, 2021

aAron Munson’s reflections on this work can be found here

Live studio visit was held on August 26, 2021 at 6 PM (MST) - the recording is available below

I’m a bit hung up on the physicality of light. 

In my work, I use it as a tool to crack open perspective to explore my identity and connection to the natural world.

My process involves probing, poking and prodding, until an a-ha! hits me.

 Recently, I’ve become very interested in that moment of creation— that singular inspiration, surprise, or insight that pushes someone to create something out of nothing.

In visual art, where a piece might take years to complete, how do you bring a viewer closer to that moment of creation?

That’s driven me to go big and immersive. I’m trying to move still images into three dimensional space; using structure, scale, motion, and sound to create little worlds that bring a viewer closer to that initial feeling of discovery.

STRANGE JURY is a jury trial by nature in the woods. It is an attempt to recreate a specific moment— it’s dusk in the forest, you enter a clearing... and flinch at the feeling of being watched... 60-foot sentinels living intense and meaningful lives surround you and challenge you... Why are you in our home? What is your relationship to this place? We are not your bathroom.

The exhibit was installed in January 2021 at AGA. It sat idle until June, when doors were opened to the public. 

Reflecting on this experience led me to two thoughts—

 One, flexibility and adaptability is key right now.

 Two, I’ve been creating large immersive works that are essentially video installations without the video. I’ve also been making short experimental videos, and using video to document my installations.

I decided to converge those paths and create a body of experimental video intended for immersive installation— with adaptability in mind.

My goal is to create a space where different seasons and elements will breathe in cycles of non-linear time. 

These pieces are works in progress, experiments, sketches, waypoints—

“Shallow Water” will hopefully evolve into a breathing patch of floor. “Shallow Forest” and “Shallow Fire” are attempts to use the physicality of light to crack open the spirit of those things.

The Wheel is an illusory medicine wheel installation that explores the liminal zone of my own Indigenous-Settler identity. This is an evolving project, and will hopefully become something you can walk into and experience.

STRANGE JURY was created by photographing stacks of black-and-white film negatives— all images of the ravine near my home. Colours are created by the reflections of my hands and other objects on the film.

All images are real light; the real world. Light is manipulated in front of the camera with metal, water, film, and reflections.