In my work, I aim to dive into intimate and reflective moments - both on a large and small scale. I often work from a deeply autobiographical sense of place and object, of memory and ritual. I gravitate towards building close compositions, often placing the viewer literally and figuratively close to the subject so that even the smallest objects become worlds onto themselves. This intimate view pays careful attention to how one moves through a space - hands interacting with objects, bare feet against the ground, or a careful look at the surroundings. I aim to communicate the physicality of existing in a space - how it creates a sense of being “here”.
I am fascinated by the overlap of printmaking and animation, as they are mediums that stretch in opposite directions. Though both mediums rely on repetition of images, printmaking often relies on a vertical technique of building an image. It uses layering, transparencies, and careful registration to create one single image. Animation, however, aims to build an image in sequence - one comes after the other. Printmaking often works to create many versions of one image with minimal discrepancies, whereas animation aims to create many different images with the discrepancy between them being the point where the image is activated. When working with both mediums, one must think in both worlds. This workflow asks me to break my habits, and to confront and interrogate my artistic instincts. It asks me to make each decision with purpose as I work within these two worlds of artmaking.
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Similarly, I have been working to explore how many digital effects I can achieve in the physical world. To that end, I explore analogue paper overlays using lightboxes, tracing paper, or shadow shapes, and have been replicating simple digital movements such as pans or crossfades through analogue means. These workflows are ritualistic, roundabout, and based on process rather than product - it is a process of gradual assembly. This process allows me to dive deep into the act of doing - it is a workflow that asks me to be entirely present through every step. It is a way of fusing my “here” into the piece, as I focus on the moment of creation rather than looking ahead to the final piece.
Through ritualistic, roundabout, and meditative processes, I aim to create beautiful, intimate, and dense worlds for the viewer to join me in. In my explorations of the melding of digital and analogue, of printmaking and animation, I work to infuse my sense of “here”; often conveyed through deep, rich textures or heavy analogue layering and transparencies, and inviting the viewer into the spaces and objects around me. Immersing myself completely in my process, I ask for my viewer to do the same - to take a leap of faith and be welcomed into what “here” means, right now.
a frame from one of my films in progress.
i am open to work! get in touch - micahwgoldstein@gmail.com . CV below.
