Dana Velan @ PFOAC 221
09 - 30 Apr 2016
Clouds of dust and diagrams
By Amanda Beattie
To be whisked away in a sea of colour, a flurry of movement and light; cast away in a gentle storm, strewn here and there, at the will of the invisible forces that govern time and space. A speck among millions of others, a circle radiating from within itself, like a drop of water rippling out into an endless sea. An overwhelming and overpowering experience, both chaotic and calming, confusing and clear.
This is the effect of Dana Velan’s Nebulas series (2014 to 2015). She creates a space like none that we know in our immediate physical surroundings. It is a space that is beyond, out of reach. But it is also a space that is within – our inner landscapes – that we can, perhaps, access at will. All of the mysteries of the universe, tucked away infinitely inside every one of us. The ultimate connection. The essence of our beings.
The Nebulas series is here paired with a work from the series Legendless (2012). It is a labyrinth, of sorts, a map that seemingly leads to nowhere. It can be followed, traced by a finger. Multiple pathways suggest multiple possibilities, diverging down different alleyways, through a web of tangled streams. But it has no destination. It is, rather, a kind of network. Like individual grains of sand coming together to form a beach, or dust particles assembling to form clouds like in her Nebulas works, Velan’s tiny black marks converge and diverge into clusters of activity.
These series of pathways give the impression that they are alive and can breath, and ebb and flow in their own right. This is not a route heading toward something or somewhere in particular, nor is it a diagram with specific instructions to follow. It will not lead us to the nebulas in the sky or within ourselves. It just is, in it’s own right. It is everywhere and nowhere all at once.
The bird’s eye view we are granted in this Legendless work allows a privileged perspective, one which encourages a deeper reflection. With the Nebulas series, we are in the works, actively involved and sharing the space with the explosions of colour. And yet despite these differences, both the Legendless work and the Nebulas series form part of the hallucination that Velan indulges in us: answers to questions we didn’t know we had, in the form of more questions.
The rhythmic abstraction formed by the bursts of colour in the Nebulas series, paired with the linear disorder and the meticulously sculpted circular forms in the Legendless work, further point to the vast realm of the unknown. Clouds of dust and diagrams become hazy and out of focus. We are left with a feeling of vertigo as we meander through the cyclical colour wheel that Velan spins.
By Amanda Beattie
To be whisked away in a sea of colour, a flurry of movement and light; cast away in a gentle storm, strewn here and there, at the will of the invisible forces that govern time and space. A speck among millions of others, a circle radiating from within itself, like a drop of water rippling out into an endless sea. An overwhelming and overpowering experience, both chaotic and calming, confusing and clear.
This is the effect of Dana Velan’s Nebulas series (2014 to 2015). She creates a space like none that we know in our immediate physical surroundings. It is a space that is beyond, out of reach. But it is also a space that is within – our inner landscapes – that we can, perhaps, access at will. All of the mysteries of the universe, tucked away infinitely inside every one of us. The ultimate connection. The essence of our beings.
The Nebulas series is here paired with a work from the series Legendless (2012). It is a labyrinth, of sorts, a map that seemingly leads to nowhere. It can be followed, traced by a finger. Multiple pathways suggest multiple possibilities, diverging down different alleyways, through a web of tangled streams. But it has no destination. It is, rather, a kind of network. Like individual grains of sand coming together to form a beach, or dust particles assembling to form clouds like in her Nebulas works, Velan’s tiny black marks converge and diverge into clusters of activity.
These series of pathways give the impression that they are alive and can breath, and ebb and flow in their own right. This is not a route heading toward something or somewhere in particular, nor is it a diagram with specific instructions to follow. It will not lead us to the nebulas in the sky or within ourselves. It just is, in it’s own right. It is everywhere and nowhere all at once.
The bird’s eye view we are granted in this Legendless work allows a privileged perspective, one which encourages a deeper reflection. With the Nebulas series, we are in the works, actively involved and sharing the space with the explosions of colour. And yet despite these differences, both the Legendless work and the Nebulas series form part of the hallucination that Velan indulges in us: answers to questions we didn’t know we had, in the form of more questions.
The rhythmic abstraction formed by the bursts of colour in the Nebulas series, paired with the linear disorder and the meticulously sculpted circular forms in the Legendless work, further point to the vast realm of the unknown. Clouds of dust and diagrams become hazy and out of focus. We are left with a feeling of vertigo as we meander through the cyclical colour wheel that Velan spins.