When I see, I breathe light
Natalie Hunter
When I see, I breathe light
Smokestack Gallery
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
February 25th - July 14th, 2021.
When I see, I breathe light evokes the passage of time, memory, motion, and light through luminous and transient photo-based installations and photographs. Each photograph captures layered moments in time using long multiple exposures to make images that rest between the space of a breath - 2 seconds inhale, 3 seconds exhale. Passing handmade colour filters over the aperture of the camera in each exposure reflects, bends, and activates light entering the camera; producing subtle shifts in colour, traces of motion, and distortion. The resulting images are soft, imperfect, experimental, and ethereal multiple exposures that contain mirror imagery of my surroundings in addition to what I’m looking at with a lens. Framed on the wall like windows, folded in undulating waves, or draped over armatures, the photo-based installations in When I see, I breathe light animate the space with latent imagery, mirror spaces, refractions, and shadows. Luminous and transient, they suggest something akin to a memory rather than a recorded moment. Colour becomes scent, and motion resembles thought passing through the mind. Like the light entering an aperture and bouncing within the mirror space of a camera, these works become poetic reflections on the slow passage of time, while touching on how we perceive stillness, motion, and light through time.
Natalie Hunter: When I see, I breathe light
Natalie Hunter holds an MFA from the University of Waterloo, and has shown her work in Canada and the United States in numerous exhibitions and public presentations including the Hamilton Supercrawl; the Art Gallery of Hamilton; University of Waterloo Art Gallery; Rodman Hall Arts Centre; Mississauga Living Arts Centre; Centre 3 for artistic + social practice; and Museum London among others. She is the recipient of several awards from Ontario Arts Council and Canada Council for the Arts and in addition to her artistic practice is also a sessional instructor at the University of Waterloo. Natalie grew up in Hamilton, ON, where she currently lives and works.
Natalie Hunter wishes to acknowledge the generous
support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Superframe Framing Fund.