The double video installation Topologies by artist Quayola is an experimental abstract of the Baroque period art works Las Meninas by Velazquez and L’ Immacolata Concezione by Tiepolo. The figurative paintings are systematically reduced to color planes and set in motion as a fluid kinetic skin. The fluttering undulations become almost entirely independent of their origins, responding to an underlying, ever changing formulation of three dimensional space. The abstractions have architectural geometric underpinnings of fixed points connected by simple geometric plains which create the three dimensional space. The organic movement of the topography is underscored by accompanying sounds corresponding to the intensity and scale of the movement.

The entire project is seen in close view with no particular orientation of up or down and only single point lighting grounds the scene. A faint background of ambient voices in a large hall enhances the quality of the works visceral effect. The two video installations rest at a point between material and landscape, living and artificial. With the lack of orientation or reference to scale the pieces becomes a meditation on movement and surface in which the origination of the project becomes less relevant than the visceral experience of their own dilations, a system unto itself.

Topologies (Excerpt) – Tiepolo

Topologies (Excerpt) – Velazquez