About the Artist
An artist creating primarily photo-based works. Living in the Vancouver area since 1968, he has been making images for a very long time.
Frequently examining our relationship with the natural environment, McCall’s work explores the unexpected arrangement of elements that occur from chance effect. Using a visual aesthetic reminiscent of contemporary commercial imagery, he challenges us to consider the significance of visual coincidence. He frequently makes use of unconventional perspective and scale offering the viewer a fresh look at the familiar in order to challenge preconceived notions about our surroundings.
Stuart McCall is married, has two children, and lives south of Vancouver, in Ladner, BC, where he finds considerable visual inspiration for his work. His interests outside of making images include rowing, flirting with danger, and building things.
About the Works
Still Videos are a blend of moving and non-moving subjects, taking the form of continuous looping 10 minute videos. The subject matter are inherently still landscapes, save for some minor, incidental movement. The movement is subtle, consistent and quite random, for instance, grass moving slightly in a breeze, a river moving steadily through the scene, or light reflecting on moving water, such that a loop is created with no apparent beginning or end. The scenes are largely featureless, in other words, wide, uniformly coloured or uniformly contoured areas. The camera remains stationary, mirroring the stillness of the scene.
Taking some degree of inspiration from the long lingering “take” in cinema, and the very slow, deliberate pans of a Mark Lewis film piece, these works also have a kinship with non time-based visual art, specifically, colour field or random abstract painting. The slow unfolding of time reiterates the tranquility and the meditative character of these works.
This work considers the influence of the artist in directing the viewer through the image. These Still Videos permit the viewer’s attention to wander at will throughout the piece. There is no hierarchy of content or path set forth for the eye to follow. You are free to come and go at any point in the piece.
