Gunvor Nelson in Person

Tonight's program opens with Light Years Expanding, one in a series of exquisite collage films that recall Gunvor Nelson's origins as a painter. Whether painting directly on photographs in lush brushstrokes, collaging toys, photos, and objects from the natural word, or filming the Swedish landscape, Nelson reveals a deep appreciation of sensual possibilities of the medium. Her explorations of digital video equally probe that medium's particularities. In Snowdrift, a snowstorm encounters video snow, while in Trace Elements, the artist creates an enigmatic self portrait from shadows. Nelson describes her most recent work: “In New Evidence I use video material from the installation Evidence. Several motifs recur in short or sometimes long passages-shadows traveling, women standing, fires blazing, feet walking and over everything water flowing. A lot of water.”

Light Years Expanding (1984, 25 mins, B&W, 16mm, From Canyon Cinema). Snowdrift (2001, 9 mins, Color, MiniDV, From the artist). Trace Elements (2003, 10 mins, Color, MiniDV, From the artist). New Evidence (2006, 22 mins, Color, MiniDV, From the artist).