Brendan Penzer

Born 1974, Sydney
Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons)
Graduation show: 2003
Graduation ceremony: 2004


Artwork in Space YZ

Horseshoe Falls, 2003
Single channel video with sound
7:44 mins

Horseshoe Falls is a video piece from a larger immersive installation work that was presented at my Honours graduation exhibition. The work, standing alone in Space YZ, is a video piece made from an old VHS camera that I loaned from the art school, shooting hours of source footage of the local environment in Hazelbrook (Blue Mountains), where I lived at the time. A mirror-image effect has been applied to the footage, providing a type of Rorschach imagery that reveals all kinds of animate imagery, animal/spirit figures as such, down the centre line of the picture.

The work applies theories of ecological psychology and phenomenology and has been layered with a three track soundscape comprising the sounds of the bush environment, the actual waterfall and of the artist having an asthma attack. Around the time of my honours year I struggled badly with asthma, ending up in hospital a number of times. Halfway through the honours year I had a serious episode that resulted in me having to be brought back to life with adrenaline shots after both my lungs had completely collapsed. The work illustrates the conflict between and asks questions about ideas of how we live and relate to the natural environment and our way of being in it.

Horseshoe Falls, 2003

I spent my honours year in the YZ environment, having undertaken a Bachelor of Applied Science (Social Ecology) at the Hawkesbury Campus for my undergraduate years. Combining the two disciplines is an essential component of my arts practice to this very day. I held an exhibition during the middle of the year in the YZ Gallery which incorporated paintings, installations, video, native vegetation and a pathway of non-native grass. Being with the visual and electronic art students/colleagues and the lecturers in the honours units provided the necessary challenges that helped me shape and develop my artistic practice and to engage in philosophical discourse around art and its purpose. It was a very productive year where I learned much.