Forgotten Landscape is a permanent video installation designed specifically for the new Hyatt Denver Convention Center Hotel in downtown Denver. The installation consists of a custom panoramic nine-video flatscreen configuration built into the Hotel architecture displaying High Definition video content. The installation is located in the Porte Cochere area to the side of the hotel's entrances on 15th Street, and is visible from outside the hotel.
The thirty-seven minute film loop displayed on the video screens explores the spectrum of moods and textures experienced in the obscure corners of the Colorado landscape - areas often overlooked, yet are quintessentially Colorado. A variety of environments - dry grassy plains, plowed fields, an abandoned farmhouse, mountain meadows, creeks and canyons - are associatively composed together to form a new dynamic and creative geography. Experimental techniques are used in the film to represent the act of seeing and recognizing the figurative world, as images emerge from- and dissolve into overexposed shots.
In its location at the Denver Convention Center Hotel, Forgotten Landscape offers visitors to the hotel a unique experience of the outlying Colorado landscape.
Forgotten Landscape was shot in 2005 on 16mm and Super 8mm film and edited in High Definition video.
Trans- was created specifically for a public art film and video installation at the Denver International Airport. Based on the idea of D.I.A. as a gateway to other places, the film is an experimental exploration of a journey "elsewhere." The film uses a palate of visual textures to depict the atmospheres encountered within foreign and familiar environments. As a subjective documentary and memory piece, Trans- not only depicts the associative progression from one image or place to another, but also illustrates a spectrum of emotional and psychic effects experienced while traveling at home and abroad.
Trans- was created from over 3 hours of original Super 8mm footage filmed between 2001 and 2003 in the U.S., Europe and Canada. This film was funded by a grant from the Mayor's Office of Art, Culture and Film in Denver, Colorado. Trans- currently appears as part of a public art film and video installation in the upper mezzanine on Concourse A at the Denver International Airport.
Total Running Time: 10 minutes 30 seconds, with sound
Nazis to the Moon! is a campy fantasy short animation based on the bizarre historical fact that Nazi Germany developed plans during World War II to expand their budding rocket technology into a space program. The film's prelude shows Hitler's dreary world as he dreams about a more idyllic life on the Moon. Then, he dramatically announces his lunar destination to the masses, and promptly launches himself. Little does he know that the philosopher Nietzsche awaits him there, setting the stage for an inevitable conflict and symbolic separation of their disparaging philosophies.
Nazis to the Moon!, inspired by the collage art piece by Winston Smith "Nazis on the Moon," puts the absurd scenario of sending Hitler to the Moon into action.
Total Running Time: 3 minutes, with sound
FrankenChrist illustrates the parallel themes of resurrection between Jesus in the context of the allegory of Frankenstein's monster. Borrowing stills from James Whale's 1931 classic version of Frankenstein, we witness Doctor Frankenstein grave robbing and then the botched brain theft by his assistant, destroying the jar containing a normal brain and stealing a prophetic one instead. The result is FrankenChrist, who after a dramatic unveiling utters his first words and promptly returns to the heavens. Named after and inspired by the 1985 Dead Kennedys album. Total Running Time: 3 minutes, with sound
Total Running Time: 3 minutes, without sound
Shannon's Latest Reel is a representation of his latest published works.
As an experimental filmmaker and video installation artist, I am fascinated with the synthesis between the sometimes divergent, yet integrable worlds of film and video. My primary interest and involvement the last several years has been to create film art in the digital realm. Conversely, I have also enjoyed presenting my digital creations in traditional theatrical settings. I have become well acquainted with both antiquated and modern motion-image technologies and use this unique combination as the basis for my art-making tools.
By utilizing motion picture film to create and manipulate my source imagery, I have been able to achieve deeper, warmer and more organic visuals. I've made a point to integrate natural characteristics, even "faults" of the filmic medium - including graininess, scratches, dirt, flares, flickering footage and sprocket holes - to not only acknowledge film as the original medium, but also to add to the visual and symbolic vocabulary.
At the same time, employment of the latest digital technologies has allowed me to create large, continuous and virtually indefinite playback display of high quality video content in ways that were previously too bulky to install or costly to acquire and maintain. Such current technologies integrated into modern architectural and public environments allow my work to reach much wider audiences who can have the rare experience of viewing non-commercial motion-media art.
For my video installation projects, I initially draw inspiration from the environments where these projects are to be featured, by both the architects' concepts behind the specific structures and what the places symbolize to me personally. The filmmaking process then provides the opportunity for me to reflect and extrapolate, even expand upon my personal experience with the given topic. My films often meditate on the subtleties and subjective quality of these experiences. I often find myself attracted the extraordinary in the mundane and strive to bring special attention to things normally experienced in the background.
Shannon is a shooter and editor for hire, and an experimental filmmaker and accomplished public artist.
He can be contacted at: shannon@shannonwkelly.com.