Swell (2021)

Swell offers an eco-scenographic meditation on a post-human landscape imagined through an immersive video art installation presented as a triptych. The work considers shapes and forms of power, endurance, determination, alchemy and residue in an environment slowly morphing in the wake of human selfishness. 

Through the journey of an inflatable plastic castle, rich in symbolism, the work explores unnatural materialities as they come into proximity with natural landscapes and architectures. A series of subtle negotiations surface in this meeting where oscillating status, shifting power and equivocal states of being emerge.

For more details on all three artworks and full videos, please contact Gavin.

Swell was presented as an immersive 3-channel performance-for-video triptych installation at the National Arts Festival 2021 (Makhanda, South Africa).

Conceptualised and directed by Gavin Krastin

Videography by Evaan Jason Ferreira 

Dramaturgy by Alan Parker 

Production management by Julia Ruzyczka de Rosenwerth

Photography by Georgia Herron Lekorotsoana

Graphic design by Ayanda Maseko 

Space management and assistance by Matshawandile Kopele and Ashwin May 

Stunts by Jandre Terblanche

Press:

South African performance artist Gavin Krastin comes back with Swell, a surrealist triptych video work | Daily Maverick | David Mann

Swell: Empire on the rocks | Medium | David Mann

Swell: Empire on the rocks | The Critter | David Mann