Need some hypnotic video to lessen the pain of being a human being?
Nicolas Sassoon makes animations and video projections that have us seriously blissing out
People like to take selfies in front of Nicolas Sassoon's artwork. He notices: "There's always that moment where people enter the space, they go in front of the projection and then they start playing with that. It's really kind of like being a caveman and having a torch and seeing your shadow and playing with your shadow."
It's a natural reaction, really — Sassoon's vibrating animations are mesmerizing, energizing and strangely soothing. And the venue might help with that sensation; along with spaces like the Vancouver Art Gallery, Sassoon has shown his work at electronic music venues across the city. In this video made by Daniel Lins da Silva, you get to spend a day with him setting up for an event at Deep Blue.
Watch the video:
Ultimately, the mystery of Sassoon's work might lie in its simplicity — while the artist creates his flickering videos by overlapping two images, he says he's trying to create an otherworldy effect: "I've always been drawn to a type of imagery or images or artworks that really create this magical moment where you look at them and you're transported somewhere else, but you're also sort of baffled by how it was possibly made."
Sassoon's work Signals, seen in this video, was a collaborative project with artist Rick Silva. WALLPAPERS is a collaborative project that includes the artwork WL_10 by artist Sylvain Sailly and Fire Cloud by Sara Ludy. Born in France, Sassoon continues to be entranced by his Vancouver home and the city's underground spaces that have influenced his work. You can follow him here.
Watch CBC Arts: Exhibitionists on Friday nights at 11:30pm (12am NT) and Sundays at 3:30pm (4pm NT) on CBC Television.
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