Gail Cooper
I have seen a ghost. In fact, I have seen many ghosts and have had countless other paranormal encounters that I cannot explain with mere words. The feelings that I am left with from these indescribable occurrences are then translated into a visual and aural form.
I reinterpret the transparency and luminescence of light in order to describe my ineffable experiences and use technology to capture the unseen. Low fidelity images are used as reference material as I mine photographic and filmic rifts to explore my own subtle shifts in perception. The softness of pastel and the slipperiness of oil invoke a similar blurriness which visually renders shifts in awareness. Both light and spirit behave in visceral ways and the ethereal image that emerges in my paintings and drawings act as my voice, calling from a realm in which language does not exist.
Both film and sound have the ability to be scratched and eroded to show subtle rifts and defects. Scratch animation is an important tool in conjuring up the feelings I am left with after these transcendental occurrences. I also generate a sound element to accompany my drawings, composed using the Moog synthesizer, that is used to direct the visual experience. There is always more than the eye can see, the movement and pacing of scratch animation helps to render in visual form what these uncanny experiences have left behind.
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