To Get Out Of The Way, 2020
hand-drawn pencil animation, projection on drawing paper, 2 minutes 20 second, continuous loop, dimensions variable, edition of 3
To Get Out Of The Way ambiguously illustrates the bond between the human/natural world and is a contemplation of the art historical figure in the landscape, but with a wry present-day gaze. Figures in landscapes, proceed and recede in vast diverse settings meditating on the idea of control and lack there of in our natural surroundings in the wake of global environmental catastrophes. The projection depicts vast hybrid desert, tropical, forest, ocean and other landscapes with silhouettes of figures, literally and figuratively, blacking out and reclaiming the scenery as a cyclical metaphor of human intervention, both positively and negatively, of what the future could be. The accompanying sound composition heard is of Shpungin’s amateur playing of her childhood piano layered with the sound in reverse. With this layering the cyclical and anticipatory nature of the landscape, (ominous, melancholic, hopeful) becomes even more evident.