Double Quadruple Axel (DQA), 2021
(To reach seemingly impossible heights backwards, forwards and upwards, and downwards too, with one leg safely behind in the air, or, a bright view, done twice.)
x NYA10th anniversary
digital image series of 9
image 1: moving image, 11 seconds
image 2-9: panoramas north, east, south, west x 2
i walked along the four edges of the outdoor ice rink at Mel Lastman Square in North York. i walked with a view on the dried up rink, a pool of silky white, residue of pigmented ice left over from the winter season. there is something that recalls the past but that is also new and expectant in this, together with the spring sunshine that transforms the ground into a different kind of reflective surface. these images capture the bright ground, and black voids: a topsy turvy space that defies gravity or perspective or any one viewpoint. the ground turned into a Double Quadruple Axel (DQA), an impossible jump borrowed and extended from figure skating, of twirling four times above the ground, twice, flying through a spectacular experience. the first image in the photo series is a moving image - 11 seconds into our future - that contextualizes isolation in the commons, and germinates a hope that is represented in the budding, swaying trees above/below. the other 8 images, the DQA, are made using a magical panoramic function on my camera phone.
*in figure skating, the Axel has three phases: the entrance phase (which ends with the takeoff), the flight phase, when the skater rotates into the air, and the landing phase, which begins when the skater's blade hits the ice and ends when they are safely skating backwards on the full outside edge with one leg behind in the air.
**DQA is commonly known as Data quality assessment, a process of scientifically and statistically evaluating data in order to determine the quality of a program.