January 25, 2024
Sarah Conaway
Interior Castle
The Box
December 2, 2023 - February 3, 2024
Sarah Conaway
Sarah Conaway presents ten digitized Super 8 mm films in the large darkened space of The Box, as well as a series of twenty film-stills installed in a separate room at the back of the gallery. Derived from the moving images, the stills encapsulate an instant from the larger whole. The films are all screened at the same scale from projectors meticulously installed on white pedestals. Each is a fragmentary meditation no longer than four minutes with varying still life, exterior or interior shots that are dream-like and fleeting. The series is named after the spiritual treatise Interior Castle from 1577 by Teresa of Avila (a Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic, also known as Saint Teresa) which describes the "contemplative life" as a castle with seven chambers. Conaway's films are reflective and carefully observed simple moments presented as studies of color, light and shadow.
When thinking about the relationship between the still and moving images, without careful scrutiny it is hard to discern which still came from which film, though that is hardly the point. Titled like the films by number (Still Life No. 1 to Still Life No. 20) the sequence of small scale (11.25 x 13.25) grainy images depict the environs that surround Conaway's apartment. These include concrete stairs, palm trees silhouetted against the sky, drapery folds, shadows of plants on a wall and the sidewalk, in addition to dried flowers in a vase and other more abstracted interior and exterior scenes. Because the pictures are enlarged from the tiny Super 8 footage they have a shallow depth of field and a softness that harkens back to experimental film from a pre-digital era. Still Life No. 17 depicts a light sepia/orange hued image of a vase with dried flowers and its shadow. Along with numerous other shots of flowers in interiors, these images recall Andre Kertesz's photograph Mondrian's Studio (1926), as well as the aura of Maya Deren's classic film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).
The journey through the ten films moves between interior and exterior spaces while focusing on plants, architectural details, shadows and drapery. None of the completed short films are single takes, but rather slow fades that jump between subtle observations. Interior Castle I (all works 2023) is grainy and black and white. It begins with silhouetted palm trees blowing in the wind against a gray sky, then shifts to close-ups of light coral on a dark ground followed by leaves and flowers in a vase. The film segues to curtains and the light seen through them followed by details of cracked paint on walls. It then returns to silhouetted flowers in vases and their shadows moving ever so slightly on the walls before moving outside where the footage traces the shadow of a wrought-iron fence on a sidewalk before concluding with blurry shots what appears to be crumpled paper.
While each short sequence is unique, the imagery within them is strikingly familiar as Conaway repeatedly films the objects that surround her. The differences are what drive the content as she shifts her view from down to up to out while taking advantage of the ways lenses flatten space and capture shadows. The movements within each scene are subtle for the most part: a slow pan where the focus changes or a jump from close to far as seen in Interior Castle II where Conaway's camera fluctuates between a distant and closer view of drapery gathered on the floor, or hovers over a white ribbon on a dark ground. The colors are often washed out and faded hues or sepia tones except when Conaway shoots footage of garden plants. Bright green objects and deep pink backgrounds appear in Interior Castle X giving pause as if referencing a moment from a different dream.
Each projection appears like a moving painting on the gallery wall. There is no overt narrative, but rather the films and accompanying stills allude to emotions and feelings while delighting in the way the mind can drift in numerous directions when triggered by familiar, yet somewhat abstracted imagery. The works are about time, space and nature through the qualities of light that fall upon interior and exterior spaces. Returning to Teresa of Avila's book and the notion of "mansions of the mind," Conaway's films construct a journey that reveals the power and beauty in the everyday.
Interior Castle
The Box
December 2, 2023 - February 3, 2024
Sarah Conaway
Sarah Conaway presents ten digitized Super 8 mm films in the large darkened space of The Box, as well as a series of twenty film-stills installed in a separate room at the back of the gallery. Derived from the moving images, the stills encapsulate an instant from the larger whole. The films are all screened at the same scale from projectors meticulously installed on white pedestals. Each is a fragmentary meditation no longer than four minutes with varying still life, exterior or interior shots that are dream-like and fleeting. The series is named after the spiritual treatise Interior Castle from 1577 by Teresa of Avila (a Carmelite nun and prominent Spanish mystic, also known as Saint Teresa) which describes the "contemplative life" as a castle with seven chambers. Conaway's films are reflective and carefully observed simple moments presented as studies of color, light and shadow.
When thinking about the relationship between the still and moving images, without careful scrutiny it is hard to discern which still came from which film, though that is hardly the point. Titled like the films by number (Still Life No. 1 to Still Life No. 20) the sequence of small scale (11.25 x 13.25) grainy images depict the environs that surround Conaway's apartment. These include concrete stairs, palm trees silhouetted against the sky, drapery folds, shadows of plants on a wall and the sidewalk, in addition to dried flowers in a vase and other more abstracted interior and exterior scenes. Because the pictures are enlarged from the tiny Super 8 footage they have a shallow depth of field and a softness that harkens back to experimental film from a pre-digital era. Still Life No. 17 depicts a light sepia/orange hued image of a vase with dried flowers and its shadow. Along with numerous other shots of flowers in interiors, these images recall Andre Kertesz's photograph Mondrian's Studio (1926), as well as the aura of Maya Deren's classic film Meshes of the Afternoon (1943).
The journey through the ten films moves between interior and exterior spaces while focusing on plants, architectural details, shadows and drapery. None of the completed short films are single takes, but rather slow fades that jump between subtle observations. Interior Castle I (all works 2023) is grainy and black and white. It begins with silhouetted palm trees blowing in the wind against a gray sky, then shifts to close-ups of light coral on a dark ground followed by leaves and flowers in a vase. The film segues to curtains and the light seen through them followed by details of cracked paint on walls. It then returns to silhouetted flowers in vases and their shadows moving ever so slightly on the walls before moving outside where the footage traces the shadow of a wrought-iron fence on a sidewalk before concluding with blurry shots what appears to be crumpled paper.
While each short sequence is unique, the imagery within them is strikingly familiar as Conaway repeatedly films the objects that surround her. The differences are what drive the content as she shifts her view from down to up to out while taking advantage of the ways lenses flatten space and capture shadows. The movements within each scene are subtle for the most part: a slow pan where the focus changes or a jump from close to far as seen in Interior Castle II where Conaway's camera fluctuates between a distant and closer view of drapery gathered on the floor, or hovers over a white ribbon on a dark ground. The colors are often washed out and faded hues or sepia tones except when Conaway shoots footage of garden plants. Bright green objects and deep pink backgrounds appear in Interior Castle X giving pause as if referencing a moment from a different dream.
Each projection appears like a moving painting on the gallery wall. There is no overt narrative, but rather the films and accompanying stills allude to emotions and feelings while delighting in the way the mind can drift in numerous directions when triggered by familiar, yet somewhat abstracted imagery. The works are about time, space and nature through the qualities of light that fall upon interior and exterior spaces. Returning to Teresa of Avila's book and the notion of "mansions of the mind," Conaway's films construct a journey that reveals the power and beauty in the everyday.