Osmosistem
by Rebecca Swan and Charlie Ha
26 May – 22 June 2019
Artist Talk, Whitespace: Saturday 8 June, 2PM
Women in Photography Talk, Auckland Art Gallery auditorium: Sunday 16 June, 1PM
Presenting the latest video installation by Rebecca Swan and Charlie Ha that explores the interconnection of all life in the face of climate change and pollution. The work wraps the viewer visually and sonically, inviting them to enter an aquatic osmosistem. The title is a combination of ecosystem and osmosis, creating a neologism to describe the visceral experience of knowing how deeply symbiotic all life on earth is. The video combines footage of ecosystems 10,000 kms apart, the redwood and kelp forests of California that Rebecca filmed during her Fulbright-Wallace Arts Residency and the oceans of Aotearoa. Charlie Ha's sublime and atmospheric soundscape combines and enhances aquatic field recordings from California and Aotearoa with his original electroacoustic composition.
Rebecca Swan is an interdisciplinary artist who works predominantly with photography and video. Her work is personal in nature, drawing on her own experience and contextualising that within a social and cultural framework. Her work has engaged with a wide range of issues, from cancer, sexual orientation, gender diversity and spirituality.