Video Artist and Filmmaker: Pawel Wojtasik

Running Time: 22:00

For more information visit: www.pawelwojtasik.com

Exhibited/Screened:
• Real Art Ways, (Hartford, CT) 2006
• Alona Kagan Gallery, (NYC) 2006 solo exhibition
• Westport Arts Center, (Westport, CT) 2006
• Maui Film Festival, (Hawaii) 2006
• Anthology Film Archives (NYC) 2006

THE AQUARIUM was filmed in high-definition video in Alaska; Mystic, Connecticut; and New York City and contrasts the views of the primal arctic landscape with the claustrophobia of captured sea mammals living in aquariums. The work looks beyond the spectacle of an aquarium to the reality of progressive destruction of these animals’ habitat. It is not simply an environmental critique, however; rather, the piece assumes an attitude of wonder toward the animals, the landscape, the human observers, and the artificial environments they have created in order to domesticate “nature.”

Pawel Wojtasik was born in Lodz, Poland, and lived in Tunisia before immigrating to the United States in 1972. He received his M.F.A. from Yale University in 1996. He started making 8 mm films in Poland at age 14. After several years as a painter, he returned to the moving image in 2000. His work investigates the intersection of the natural and human-made environments. The film DARK SUN SQUEEZE examines the workings of a sewage treatment plant; NAKED (2005) explores the lives of laboratory animals; THE AQUARIUM (2006) deals with captive sea mammals.

Pawel Wojtasik's work was shown at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in New York City; Momenta gallery in Brooklyn, NY; the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid, Spain; and Platform China gallery in Beijing, among others. Film festivals include San Francisco International Film Festival (2006), Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival, Chicago, IL (2006), Antimatter Underground Film Festival (2006), and Borderline Video Art Festival, Beijing, China (2006). His latest work, THE AQUARIUM, shot in high-definition video in Alaska, was recently featured in a solo show at Alona Kagan gallery in New York, and at Westport Arts Center in Westport, CT. It was also shown at Anthology Film Archives, New York City.

Pawel Wojtasik has held residencies at Yaddo, MacDowell, the Edward Albee Foundation, and the Outpost (Brooklyn, NY), and was awarded a NYSCA grant in 2006 and grants from VOOM HD Lab Artist Outreach program in New York City.

His work is featured in exhibition catalogues published by P.S. 1/MoMA and the Reina Sofia Museum and was favorably reviewed by THE NEW YORK TIMES, ARTFORUM, NY ARTS, and other publications. His new work, LANDFILL, is included in Connecticut Contemporary at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art; other works can currently be seen at Dumbo Arts Center.

What inspired you to make this piece?

I was inspired by a magazine article called "Why Look at Fish?" written by Ginger Strand. The article opened my eyes to the problems we are facing vis-à-vis the oceans, and how we are masking these problems with the allure of aquariums. The article made clear the complexity of the issues surrounding the aquarium phenomenon. In THE AQUARIUM, I tried to give an artistic form to some of those complexities.

Briefly tell us how you made your film or video: what camera and format did you use to shoot your piece, and what system did you use to edit it? What is your working process? Did you use any special techniques to make this work?

In 2005 I was artist-in-residence at Voom HD Lab in New York, where a number of artists were exploring the new field of high-definition video. The lab, under the guidance of Ali Hossaini and Lili Chin, provided us with cutting-edge equipment and technical support. The camera I used was Sony FX-1. Original HDV footage was transferred to HD CAM for editing using Final Cut Pro. My working process involves learning about a location through filming it, and so I shoot a lot of footage. Then, in the editing room, I let the footage tell me what form the film wants to take. That is how I worked on THE AQUARIUM.

Do you have any interesting behind-the-scenes stories about the making of this particular work?

I was in Alaska shooting at the Alaska SeaLife Center aquarium. I was told by someone to come film the feeding of the octopus. I set up my camera and tripod in front of a transparent tank the size of a large box. Inside the tank, coiled, was the female octopus, called Inky. The lid of the tank was opened and an aquarium employee began the feeding. The octopus swam upward toward the food as she grew red with excitement. Inky didn't just go for the food, though, but grabbed the terrified employee's hand. A struggle ensued, with the octopus's tentacles only increasing its hold on the employee's arm. An experienced octopus "whisperer" needed to be called and finally freed the employee. It's all been captured on video.

What is the relationship between your work as a video/filmmaker and life in the New York metropolitan area?

New York is the hub or the nexus of the life of ideas. Cutting-edge ideas and experiences, as well as ideas and forms of the past. The people that inhabit the city represent the cutting edge; the museums and other cultural venues provide access to the past. The mix is exhilarating. My work is nourished by the feast New York provides.

What films/videos and makers have inspired you or influenced your work? And why?

I am inspired by Andrei Tarkovski and his way of imbuing ordinary reality with spiritual overtones, as in his autobiographical film MIRROR. I like the slowness and inquisitiveness of his camerawork. Another inspiration is Robert Beavers, whose films seem to evoke the workings of the artist's mind, symbolically represented by landscape, buildings, artworks, sometimes human figures.