Composing Oceans
Ellis Holman
Installation
Composing Oceans is an installation in which the ocean is recomposed as a surreal landscape, played with tensions, light, and gravity. The installation symbolises the complex relationship between past and future, with the sensation of floating between these two extremes. It captures the longing for ultimate freedom within flight behaviour. The installation is a continuation of the work The Narrative of Sunlight (2022); an ongoing research on escapism and the elements of the landscapes around us. With the previous work, she created a contemporary form of escapism. With Composing Oceans, she wants to ask the question: What comes after flight behaviour? What does that place we long for look like?
Just as the installation, the short film between past and future tells this story by playing with tensions and twisted perspectives. There where your feet can’t touch the ground, you detach from the land, feeling estranged in the space between the deep, unknown waters stretching before you and the familiar land you leave behind. There’s a longing to linger in that moment where everything comes to a halt, where a rough sea becomes serene. There’s an urge to mold that space into your own surreal world. But what if you reach that place you’ve yearned for? Is it the ultimate escape, or does it merely exist in our imagination? Although we persist in our attempts, it cannot be shaped nor grasped. And the past and Future will continue to push and pull like the tides of the ocean.
Artists
Ellis Holman
Ellis Holman is a visual artist who draws inspiration from the landscapes around her. She uses her passion for film and photography to analyse her surroundings and then works with an iterative process to translate what she finds fascinating into her own visual language. In this process, she keeps searching for the right combination of material, technique, form, and movement that reflect the atmosphere and poetry of a landscape. Characteristic to her practice, Ellis creates works that create space for contemplation, reflection and releasing emotions.
Credits & mentions
Art installation: Composing the oceans
Design/Production: Ellis Holman
Construction assistance: Evy Deelen
Short film: Between past and future
Story: Ellis Holman
Direction and art direction: Ellis Holman
Camera: Arjen van Eijk
Production: Xinix Films, Ellis Holman
Set design assistance: Jeske Haak
Editing: Arjen van Eijk
Color calibration: Robert Nieuwenhuijs
Audio mastering: Joost de Glopper
With the support of the Mondriaan fund, a public cultural funding organization dedicated to the visual arts and cultural heritage.
