Cultivate (2023) is a video artwork that moves from slightly realistic natural to highly abstract scenes. The landscapes within the video are seemingly transformed into textured mandala-like patterns. This abstraction helps to enhance the viewer’s immersion as it captures the eye. While watching the video, we notice the pulsation from the video, which helps to create a slight flow of what could be water or foliage.
Observing the video more closely, you’ll notice that the gradual shift between light and shadow mimics day and night and the natural cycle of change. Alongside this, the scenes fade in and out, often dissolving, giving the work a more dreamy feel. There is also slow, gradual panning and zooms, which reinforce a more meditative feel to the video.
The video is monochromatic which helps to give the light in the work much more attention from the viewer. The light helps to separate each natural element in the work from each other while creating beautiful and meditative mandala patterns in the darkness of the scenes. Through the natural elements being abstracted in this way- it creates quite a desolate feeling that allows the viewer to discover themself within the video.
The audio in the work is reminiscent of vibrations, which help to heighten the meditative feel you experience when watching the video. Overall, Cultivate (2023) immerses the viewer into an abstracted form of the natural world while encouraging them to navigate it and meditate peacefully throughout the experience. It thus helps to give the viewer a heightened understanding of this state and the natural environment within which it is set.