BLACK PANORAMA
By Louise Manifold with Andy Wheeler (IE)
Inspired by the science fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Black Panorama is a hybrid science film project based on the environment around a deep-sea volcanic hydrothermal vent. This multi-layered dream space was created from footage recorded using a robotic investigation machine (ROV) designed to withstand this hostile environment and explore this deep, dark realm and its organisms.
The footage was recorded during the 2011 research VENTuRE survey, led by LIFE AT THE EDGES curatorial advisor Andy Wheeler from University College Cork. The survey discovered the Moytirra Vent field 3,030 metres below sea level on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The visitor is invited to perceive the machine’s experience through a panoramic 3-channel film within an immersive viewing device, creating a one-on-one installation work that plays with the scale and sensory experience of this extreme terrain.
BIO
Louise studied at Central Saint Martins College, London and Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology. She has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland and internationally at ISCP, New York; Proximal Distances, Chicago; Supermarket Art Fair, Stockholm; Red House Arts Centre, Syracuse, New York; Candid Arts Centre, London; and 411 Galleries, China. She has been awarded residencies at Tyrone Guthrie, Ireland; SIM, Iceland; ISCP, New York; The Botin Foundation, Spain; and The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. She has been the recipient of awards from The Arts Council of Ireland, Culture Ireland, and local authorities. She was one of the four artists short-listed for the 2009 AIB Art Prize. Recent projects include commissioned work for Winter Pages, edited by Kevin and Olivia Barry; Berlin Open Studios; Wild-Screen 2015; and TRAUMA at Science Gallery Dublin. Her current projects include AerialSparks as part of the Galway European Capital of Culture programme.
Andy Wheeler is a marine geologist with an interest in exploring the deep-ocean seabed and understanding environmental controls on organisms and resources. He has been the first to engage with many parts of our remote seabed and discovered the only known hydrothermal ‘black smoker’ system on the mid-Atlantic Ridge between Iceland and the Azores, artistically encountered in this exhibition. He is the Professor of Geology and Head of the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences in University College Cork and co-leads marine research in iCRAG, the Irish Centre for Research in Applied Geosciences — Ireland’s national geoscience research centre, supported by Science Foundation Ireland, the European Regional Development Fund and industry partners.