Everything that rise must fall

Artist(s): Ian Wieczorek

Location: Castlebar, The passageway linking to the Foyer of the Linenhall Arts Centre from Linenhall Street.  Title: FIND - Everything That Rises Must Converge

Medium: film

Date: 2014.                                                                                                                               

The video/audio installation Everything That Rises Must Converge presents what appears to be a disembodied regenerating flame, but is in fact footage of a torrent of water. The imagery transcends its physical source and becomes its opposite: water is transformed into fire by way of trompe l’oeil alchemy, evoking connotations of spontaneous generation, nuclear fusion, even the Biblical burning bush, and acknowledging Marco Costa's proposal that new technologies are creating conditions for a new kind of expression of the Sublime.

The title Everything That Rises Must Converge is by way of French philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his concept that everything in the universe is in a state of evolution towards a maximum level of consciousness. 

As an evocation of dynamic energy, the work’s location acknowledges and reinforces the status of the Linenhall Arts Centre as a focus for creative/artistic energy and endeavour in the town. The passageway off the main thoroughfare of Linenhall Street adds a dramatic spatial element to the work both visually and aurally, and also a transformed experience of a generally perceived ‘dead area’ for the passer-by. A sound element is also incorporated into the artwork. 

The work was experienced from the street every evening from 6pm to 11pm, daily. www.ianwieczorek.com