Night Swimmer
About the Project for SCANZ
Alternative energy pioneer Allan Giddy exhibited two works at SCANZ 2015:water*peace. The first, shown above was a projection of the work Night Swimmer onto a small stream in Pukekura Park.
Giddy has described the project as follows: “a Sisyphean swimmer toils relentlessly against the current. His single stroke, trapped in an endless glitch of video, pulls a moment into a string of moments, into a night of moments. This capsule of time, his personal bubble of nowness, ends only with each sunrise.”
There is a sense in which the use of a short segment of video to create a digital object of significant size points all the way to infinity, creating the maximum from the minimum.
Artist Bio
Allan Giddy
Allan Giddy has an ongoing practice of creating ‘active’ public installations that respond directly to the environment.
Giddy is a pioneer in the use of alternative energy systems and light in ‘time-based sculpture’ beginning in 1992. Over time his practice expanded into the public domain, specifically publicly sited ‘active sculpture,’ aimed at the reinvigoration of public spaces.
He is one of Australia’s foremost proponents of sustainable energy systems, electronic interconnectivity and interactivity embedded in physical art objects.
His work has been shown at the Tate Modern, in ISEA and TISEA (International Symposia on Electronic Art), and numerous other venues internationally, from Canada and Finland to Greece, Vietnam and Bulgaria. In recent years he has completed a number of large public commissions, in Australia, China, Ireland, and Germany.
In addition Allan also directed and co-curated energy-in-art exhibitions at UNSW’s Solar Research Centre (SOLARCH), Little Bay, Sydney in 1999 and 2002, Australia’s first solar art exhibition “Desert Equinox” in 2012, and La Lune (energy in art) on Sydneys North Shore.
Giddy currently directs the Environmental Research Initiative for Art (ERIA) COFA University New South Wales.
Related Project
Giddy also presented the solar powered ‘England Expects.’ The installation on the foreshore attracted much comment from passersby.
