A monumental construction zone in Vancouver, B.C.: the first part of the diptych focusses in on an early stage in the construction process and reveals a desolate landscape of broken concrete and mud with tracks of heavy machinery. The second part progressively shows the placement of over one thousand piles and the development of the foundation on land and water. Movements of construction workers and passers-by appear as filmstrip-like sequences, and combined in the picture, they form micro-narratives.
"My fascination for live cameras on the Internet -webcams -began over a decade ago. I’ve witnessed this technology evolve from tiny grainy pictures to high resolution imagery, and from rarity to ubiquity. I’ve used webcams in theatre, online performances and photographic series, and most recently to create monumental composite images.
Many miles away from the actual location yet connected via the Internet, I direct robotic webcams to scan the picture plane bit by bit. Over the course of several months or even years, I capture thousands of still images, and in a tedious manual process stitch them together into a panorama of great complexity and detail. This process of assembly uses a visual grammar borrowed from cinema, such as repetition, montage and manipulation of time. Showing natural and man-made elements alike, the composite inadvertently compiles a map of the location’s ecosystem and socio-economic demographics. Although each individual webcam image is a true photographic representation of one instant in time and space, however mundane, the sum of their arrangement has a spectacular effect. The result reveals the passage of time and develops its own narrative logic, offering a fictive yet hyper-realistic portrait of a place."
Nov 15, 2007: the call receives HONORABLE MENTION from netarts.org
This work emerges out of the long-term network practice of artist Isabelle Jenniches who has worked in a wide variety of creative net-based activities. The particular piece, "The Call" is one of several process-oriented works that she has initiated that depends on the network availability of generic user-controlled web-cams. The works are constructed over a long period of time -- time spent watching the selected scenario, remotely -- life-time spent observing the world. Thousands of images are made during a methodological process of deep-looking through this mediated network eye. The extended seeing and repetitive digital operations on the thousands of gathered images acts to frame a meditative daily routine. The cumulative practice approaches the classical Zen expression -- "there is no web-cam, there is no PhotoShop, there is only the Void" -- and it arises through the post-Cartesian possibilities of a commonly accessible network interface. Recalling David Hockney's early Polaroid work, "The Call" is an intimate and intense personal vision of a scope rarely manifest in the click-through eye-candy world of the net. (John Hopkins)
Exhibition views: Centro Arte la Regenta, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, 2008 and New Forms Festival, Vancouver, Canada, 2006.
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