Exoterica IV: Kepa Kurl

Sound and Video Installation

Created by Steven Alyian for The Cannery Arts Centre, Esperance as Artist in Residence 2021

An immersive and reflective multimedia exhibit inspired by the environment of the Esperance region. Created whilst staying at The Cannery as ‘Artist in Residence’ in September 2021, Steven visited natural locations in the region recording audio and video of places that invoked a sense of stillness. Artefacts such as bones and flowers were taken from each of these locations and used to create geometric patterns featured in each works. All elements are manipulated into a visionary music and video tapestry that simulates extra-sensory perception, reflecting the inherent and immaculate design of the natural flora and fauna of the Esperance region.

Projection Mapped A/V Interactive and Multi-Channel Audio Installation

The machine of capitalism is wound up tight. Progress. Revise. Improve. This consistent push for productivity looks more and more likely to be our ultimate undoing as nature and humanity further falls out of balance. Through food and medicine, plants have always been our teachers. We can find wisdom in their ways of existence. They grow, revise and improve, but at an evolutionary pace which maintains the balance of the environment around them. Their experience of space and time is radically different to ours. Endless forms, continuously evolving.

When I choose not to force my reality, but simply sit back and let it unfold, I observe more about my surroundings and the nature of my body. I recently became a father and travelling to Esperance with a new family means that I’ve had to take things slow, stop rushing and spend more time simply ‘being.’ With this work I fully embodied this idea, imagining what it is like for a plant, who sits in stillness its entire life. What do they experience as they slowly grow and let life unfold at their own sublime pace?

Step outside of your body, outside of self and into a new perspective, a chance to see, hear and feel a different evolutionary path. Be still.