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This image more than the recent others reminds me most of my childhood fever dream and also of staring out the side window while driving past fields and trees.

Before I began wearing contact lenses I could relax my vision until it was blurry and I used to do this often while zoning out. I liked the way the world could switch in and out from clear to soft. Combined with movement and the rhythmic swaying of travel, it was beautiful.

I’ve been thinking more about my dream and the relative speeds of close versus distant objects. The closer an object the faster it appears to be moving. Despite my dream fear, this idea of proximity and velocity are somehow visually appealing. In my dream the speeds are so fantastic I equate them to orbital velocity – 28,000km/h, the speed required to orbit the earth.

Interesting patterns and rhythms are on occasion surfacing as I progress through the stockpiled Sidelong images. Means I have to move slowly and not make premature assumptions about the material. But it’s bringing out some pretty cool results – more of my dream geometry.

When I was much younger I used to have this incredibly frightening dream – usually when I was ill. It would begin with me safe and disembodied in an all-white detail-less world – calm and enticing. An impending sense of doom would gradually creep over me as I realized I was rolling smoothly at a terrific velocity. Gentle undulations would begin in the surface beneath me getting stronger and rougher. In the distance and all around me I could make out chaotic texture in my formerly smooth white landscape – and all of sudden, I’m on the chaos and it shakes me apart and I shatter… and bolt awake freaking out. 

Even now recalling this is making me a little anxious – these dreams were so vivid and extremely frightening. Although, looking at these latest Sidelong images I recognize the movement streaks coupled with negative white space – I think perhaps they are similar to parts of my dream.

Had a dream the other night in which I was explaining my work to somebody – don’t know who. I was of course using all the usual adjectives which were – somehow unsatisfying, when trying to explain why movement is so important to me in my work. And then there was this aha moment, where I said something like, “my aim is to simplify the visual experience of the city. “

And that’s it exactly. It’s not quite distill visual elements, not quite reveal the visual foundation – it’s simplify. There is an over-abundance of visual information in an urban environment and I am seeking the core – that which binds our activities with our emotions.

These latest Sidelong images are much more delicate and dream like – showing ghostly outlines countered with intense saturated smears. This is a new direction for this body of work. Almost similar to something I happened upon some time ago with an image in the Convergent series.

At times I imagine they are the view through a super intense snow squall… in summer.

Working more on Sidelong this past week I remembered in the mid 90’s shooting my pal Andrew cycling fast through the woods in a massive smearing green panning shot which I later worked into something similar to these pieces. That and the Drive Me I – black and white infrared piece from 1990 were my first real forays into this investigation.