Two Recent Shorts by Van McElwee

(2022)

Score in Variation Space, an 11 minute animation by Van McElwee, takes place on a white grid over a black background. Built up from simple graphic elements, beginning with dots and squares, the hand-drawn artwork advances rapidly in complexity, adding multiple layers of colored rectangles, lines, grids, triangles, and squiggles. In the rapid succession of images, individual drawings appear on the screen only fleetingly, and the illusion of motion is created through constant cross-fading, and sometimes with superimpositions of multiple layers.

The conceit of the work is that these drawings represent a form of musical notation. The music we hear is an imaginative rendition of the sounds which such a score might record. Like the images, the sound begins simply, with a few chords and arpeggios, and evolves rapidly into more chaotic and complex textures. Almost all of the sound is percussive, as if played by an orchestra of tuned instruments made of glass, metal, plastic, and many other materials.

While there is no literal, precise form of musical notation in these images, and the music isn’t literally a “reading” of any systematic form of notation, the idea of a graphical score provides a fanciful jumping-off point for McElwee to create a sophisticated “visual music” piece, in which the rapidly shifting energies and dynamics implicit in the drawings are indeed audible in the trajectories of sound.

As in many of McElwee’s films, the complexity and richness continually deepen throughout the work, and our ability to take in visual and musical information sharpens and improves as we continue to watch and listen. More and more layers are added, changing rapidly, causing an effect of shimmering clouds, and the color fields scintillate like iridescent gems. The music, in tandem, has more and more reverb added to it, so the bells are heard as if in a cave or cathedral, immersed in a cloud of ambient tones. This rich, dazzling array is hypnotically beautiful.

The footage in Incarnation, McElwee’s 7 minute short, was evidently shot at a costume event, something like New York City’s Halloween parade. The crowd on view here comes in various ages, shapes, genders and sizes, but generally skews older. It is evident that the majority of these costumes are hand-made creations, from simple to highly elaborate. Wigs, fishnet, reptilian spikes, body paint, sunglasses and jewelry are in abundance. Some people are deeply immersed in acting out their chosen persona, while others simply walk by, enjoying the opportunity to see and be seen while smiling goofily with the fun of it all.

McElwee has taken this footage and created a stream of complex visual compositions. The figures are presented on a black background, divorced from any surroundings, as if floating in empty space. The paraders are arranged so that they approach the camera in two diagonal lines, with their images overlapping as they meet in the center, and at times many layers of paraders are superimposed. (This scheme of overlapped, crossed diagonals appears in several of McElwee’s works.) Some of the layers of footage are colorized to appear green or lavender, which heightens their spooky, otherworldly appearance, and also helps us take in the complexity of the layering of images. The soundtrack of strange peeps and cries sounds something like birds and insects one would hear on a pleasant evening on some remote planet, which fits in quite precisely with the exotic costumes.

Once again, McElwee gradually increases the complexity of the compositions, adding much faster cuts and more superimposed layers, as our eyes and brains get used to taking in the richness of visual layers. This increased complexity also has the effect of increased abstraction, and the screen begins to resemble an animation of turning, shimmering, melting stained glass.

In the final section, McElwee focuses on slowed down close-up shots of people’s faces, as they stare in wonder and delight at the strangeness of the spectacle. Dense masses of revelers are seen within the outline of their faces. Gradually, as people enter more deeply into their fantasies, new and strange personas seem to emerge in their expressions. What starts out as a fun social event ends up as a portal into a fantastic alternative world, and the video, which starts out as footage of a parade, ends up as a visual explosion of scintillating color and movement. It is just these sorts of magical transformations that McElwee has perfected in his art.

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