Georgie Friedman: Vortex
Interdisciplinary artist Friedman (American b. 1974, lives Boston) explores the relationship between the sublime power of natural phenomena and human fragility in her immersive video installations. Following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Friedman began examining atmospheric and oceanic conditions in her work, grappling with humankind’s simultaneous defenselessness and culpability in relation to an array of powerful storms.
To create Eye of the Storm III, on view here, Friedman filmed ocean waves and then digitally transformed the footage into a pulsating spiral that evokes clouds, wind, and water. The whirling interplay of light and texture is neatly contained within the construct of a large circle. Floating on the gallery wall, the mesmerizing video seems to invite the viewer to step inside, offering passage to another world. The footage is paired with surround-sound audio that swells and dissolves in concert with the digital storm; the artist created the soundscape in collaboration with her uncle, Jere Friedman (L ’93), by remixing a recording of him playing the gong.
Hypnotic and almost otherworldly, Eye of the Storm III transforms the gallery into a contemplative space, yet a sense of disquiet lingers. Destruction is not far from the storm’s eye; it hovers just out of sight.
