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PLUMES BY IZABELLA PRUSKA-OLDENHOF

PLUMES is an experimental film that engages with the polysemic nature of the term "plume". The "plume" drifts through the English language, appearing in zoology as a prominent bird feather and plumage, in botany as plumose pappi and as the structure of the seed that becomes the trunk of the plant, in geology as mantle plume and eruption plume, in physics as key to fluid dynamics, in astronomy as solar plumes… Among human tools, the plume appears as a writing instrument and as the nom de plume that masks an author’s true identity or makes possible multiple identities.

The image in PLUMES primarily consists of colour photograms (of feathers, insects, and plants) on 35mm film. It also integrates digital video of the artist creating shadowgrams, inspired by the works of the Themersons. These colliding forms manifest in an interplay of positive and negative space in the composition of the image. Additionally, PLUMES explores the relationship between photograms of the material object (feathers, insects, flora) at a micro level and the experience of movement – created through the relationship between the machine (film projector) and the size and shape of the photogrammed object. Photogram films have no frame lines, and the position of the film image is "fluid." It can shift one or more sprockets up or down, thereby changing the dynamic structure of the photogrammed object. PLUMES incorporates multiple scans in 35mm into its composition, exploring different rhythms of movement created through the intersection of physical shapes of objects and cinema technology.

Dr. Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof is a Toronto-based media artist. Her films and installations have been recognized with awards, commissions, and public grants, and have been included in over 150 public presentations at major international film festivals, art museums, and centres in Canada and abroad, most notably TIFF, Toronto; IFFR, Rotterdam; Sundance, Park City, Utah; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Guggenheim Museum, New York; EXiS Festival, Seoul; Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria; and ZKM, Karlsruhe. Izabella Pruska-Oldenhof's writings on art, cinema, technology and culture have appeared in academic journals and in anthologies on cinema, media studies, media arts and on screendance. She is an Associate Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she teaches courses on experimental cinema and cultural studies, among others.

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