CHRIS DOYLE
Method Air, 2010

Digital projection
Courtesy of the artist

DESCRIPTION

Method Air is a large-scale rotoscoped video of local Capital District skateboarders projected onto the exterior surface of the EMPAC building. The skateboarders, whose boards have been digitally edited out of the picture, weave quickly and effortlessly in and out of the windows, transcending both the limits of gravity and the laws of solid physics. As they break through the seemingly impermeable façade, the figures open it up and create a confluence between the interior spaces of EMPAC and the outside community.

As the artist states in his interview, “For me, defying gravity is transcendence; it is about transcending the limitations of physics. Remarkable skateboarders, as well as many other athletes, mess with physical limitations all the time…People go to great lengths to achieve a state of transcendence. I am actually more interested in the aspiration than the state itself. Humanity is revealed in the trying. My experience of being human is expressed in my failure to be more than human.”

Chris Doyle: Method Air - Dancing on the Ceiling: Art & Zero Gravity from EMPAC @ Rensselaer

Images courtesy the artist