Inland / Outland : Utah Press Release

INLAND/OUTLAND: VISUAL & MUSICAL JOURNEY THROUGH UTAH’S VARIED LANDSCAPES

Salt Lake City, UT: Brolly Arts presents in conjunction with Salt Lake Public Library and Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA) Inland / Oultand: Utah, a multi-disciplinary project featuring Icelandic visual artist Svavar Jonatansson (from Academy Award winning documentary Chasing Ice), and Utah composers Devin Maxwell and Matthew Durant. The collaboration has resulted in four short films composed of tens of thousands of still photographs from four areas of Utah: Salt Flats (I-80), Arches National Park  (Arches Scenic Drive), Capitol Reef (State Route 24) and  Oljato Road. Each film has an original score bringing the videos to life with the dialogue and interplay between the two art forms. The intent is to offer a unique presentation of these places that  invites the audience to view them through their own lens of experience, story and identity.

Jonatansson tediously photographed the landscapes under a variety of conditions: sometimes stark, bleak, and icy and other times vibrant and optimistic. By presenting Utah through the lenses of an ever-changing landscape, a playful form emerges which is amplified musically through careful presentation and transformation of compact musical cells. The beauty lies in the management of the dialogue between the score and the landscape. Jonatansson, Maxwell and Durrant have created an effective, engaging work that captures the wide range of possible emotions locked inside a long unvaried drive.

The Inland/Outland project started in 2007 in Iceland when Jónatansson travelled around the island’s 900 mile ring in freight trucks and buses, photographing out the side windows every 4-7 seconds. Utah-based composers, Maxwell and Durrant began collaborating with Jonatansson in early 2012, when he began Inland / Outland : Utah. Brolly Arts joined the growing project in early 2013. In October of 2013, the work thus far was previewed at the symposium Critical Rediscovery of the Northern Rockies at the College of Art and Architecture at Montana State University. The widespread enthusiasm and support of the work leads now to the premiere of these works at UMOCA and the photographic exhibit of these places at the Salt Lake Public Library.

The photographic exhibit runs August 9th to September 12th at the Salt Lake Public Library with a reception on Saturday, August 9th from 4–5:30pm.

The Utah premier is August 15th at UMOCA at 7pm. Tickets are $15 – $20.

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About Brolly Arts: Founded in 1995, Brolly Arts is a non-profit organization dedicated to creating meaningful art and vibrant communities through artistic and civic collaboration and experimentation.  Brolly Art’s mission is reaching a wider audience and creating links between the public, arts and landscape that contribute to sense of place, identity and community.

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