Alexis DESTOOP (Sydney & Brussels)

Invocation, 2015, single-channel video, color, sound, 4′.

A cyclical animation that combines photographic footage from two vastly different regions: the Arctic Ocean and the South China Sea. Man-made machinery, invoking present-day idols, subtly emerge from an enchanted Turner-esque seascape of fleeting horizons. An investigation into the cartography of globalization— and the myths, realities, and dreams associated with our planet’s primordial yet last frontier: the ocean.

About the artist:

Alexis Destoop forms an ongoing investigation into the workings of the image. His multilayered constructions in photography, installation and film examine the component elements of storytelling, the experience of time and the processes of identification and memory. Appropriating visual archetypes and genre conventions, his work questions, reconfigures and short-circuits the acquired meanings associated with them. His practice originates from photography and is influenced by his experience in the performing arts as well as his studies in philosophy. In recent years, landscape has become the primary subject matter of his work. Alexis’ short films have been screened in group exhibitions and film festivals worldwide such as 18th Biennale of Sydney, Ghent  International Film Festival, Musee des Beaux-Arts, Lille, and The Onion Cellar, Hanoi.