Elisa Sereno-Janz
Artist Statement
I have always been compelled by traditions of making; in my home life, my music making and my art practice. I play traditional fiddle music as well as baroque violin. I have learned to weave my own cloth and make dyes with plants from my garden. I spend summer days painting en plein air. In a social context, tradition fosters community through teaching and sharing, and this has always been a strong motivation in my creative life.
I am interested in the idea of using traditional techniques juxtaposed with technology. This is expressed in two major projects in my art practice. Fiddle Lights is a body of practice-based research exploring the movement of the bow hand in fiddle tunes and contemporary violin performance. Experimenting with time-lapse photography, video, and computer enhanced compositing, FiddleLights creates light-based visualizations of movement and technique captured from the bow-hand of individual fiddlers. This technique is then used to inform my own musical compositions, creating a synthesis of light and sound, in a multi-level installation where the music and the drawing are inextricably entwined, in process as well as product. This engages the viewer in a visual, aural, haptic and synaesthetic experience.
In the series, Rivers of Alberta, I use Google Earth satellite images as a starting point for inlay weavings and abstract paintings. This series reflects the landscape, the effect of the rivers on the land and how the surface of the land is altered by humans in the form of agriculture, forestry and urbanization. This view from space, a flattened landscape devoid of horizon, referencing maps, creates a harmony of form and content, visually blending shapes of rivers and valleys, cities, agricultural fields, and forestry cut blocks.
Both of my serial works, Rivers of Alberta and FiddleLights are products of traditional creative practices which have been reworked and translated into a contemporary context. In Rivers of Alberta, the satellite images inspire the tradition of landscape painting, and weaving, and in FiddleLights, traditional music informs the result through digital photographs and processed videos. In this way, my art practice is rooted in tradition, and endeavours to engage the viewer/audience in a contemporary experience.
