Riverfront Art Gallery Presents
‘When Color Is Not Enough'
Opening Saturday June 20th 2-5pm
Exhibition Dates: June 20-Sept 26, 2026
Location:
Riverfront Art Gallery
Yonkers Public Library, 1 Larkin Center 4th Floor, Yonkers, NY 10701
914-308-7072 • thegallery@ypl.org • https://www.ypl.org
Excerpt from Incantations - M.Gilliland ©2025 - 3 channel video - 10:00 running time
Incantations is a new three channel video piece (10:00 run time) that makes use of lots of the processed video clips I've been building up in the studio over the last year. In particular, it is based upon my favorite Prayer Wheel footage showing a close up of the rotating mantras on the wheel's surface. The very nature of the prayer wheel when intentionally rotated spreads its mantra (Tibetan glyphs on the wheel itself) outward, envisioned as a spiral flow of blessings into the environment at large. This is the underlying prayer incantation, often accompanied by ritual chanting or music.
A series of visual themes came into focus in roughly three groupings:
Maya - delusions of the world: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Mind
Dharma - path & practice: Ritual, Mantra, Meditation
Karma - cycles of life: Death, Bardo, Rebirth, Redux
As I worked on a range of variations of these themes, I realized what would be really interesting would be to present the footage (set into a vertical aspect ratio as determined by the original prayer wheel footage) on a series of side-by-side vertical monitors. Thus, there could be simultaneous variations and visually repeat rhythms across the channels not possible on a single channel display. The basic presentation configuration is three HD display panels side-by-side, visually mimicking the way multiple prayer wheels are often mounted side-by-side in a temple compound so that a visiting perambulator can walk past the row of prayer wheels and simply activate (turn) each in turn. Although the digital displays don’t offer that level of hands-on interactivity, a complex meditational space can still be achieved.
In order to present the 3 channel video in this online context, I recorded all three simultaneously as one HD program.
This program is too large file-wise and really deserves a higher definition encoding than provided by Blogger. So, please view the complete program on my Vimeo site:
Incantations - https://vimeo.com/1146248666
Here are some (.gif) samples of the range of video processing that I have been applying to footage of a 'Spirit Bark' assemblage sculpture by the artist team Sylvain and Ghyslaine Staëlens that I recorded at 2022 Outsider Art Fair in NYC.
Eventually, selected segments are destined to be included in my currently under script development multi-part video program entitled 'Crossing the Styx.'
Here are a few samples of processing a Celestial Dancer clip for my River Styx project.
The processing includes use of a custom edge-ringing glitch circuit (developed during Sean Hallowell's Intro to Video Circuits class on Polyphase Portal - discussed previously) with additional layering / luma keying / color correction on OBS.
Here are a few samples of processing Ancestors footage (originally shots of various museum displays of Greek and Roman statues) for my River Styx project.
The processing includes use of a custom edge-ringing glitch circuit (developed during Sean Hallowell's Intro to Video Circuits class on Polyphase Portal - discussed previously) with additional layering / color correction on OBS.
Here are a few samples of processing the Cambridge punting footage for my River Styx project.
The processing includes use of a custom edge-ringing glitch circuit (developed during Sean Hallowell's Intro to Video Circuits class on Polyphase Portal - discussed previously).
Here are a few examples of processed footage using various circuits developed during the "Intro to Video Circuits" class (described in previous post).
I'm excited to be taking a class (started last November) entitled "Introduction to Video Circuits" taught by media artist Sean Hallowell, a member of the Polyphase collective. (Refer to link for a listing of their most current classes being offered.)
Starting with basic RC filters and whatnot, we've moved on weekly thru various circuit component such as comparators (to isolate sync), oscillators (for chroma burst & other FX), buffers, switches and so forth. It's been interesting, at times frustrating (debugging breadboard circuits), and yet quite fun!
When I got out of art school, I had wanted to learn more about video circuitry - as I thought one possible job might be working in a TV studio maintaining equipment. (Anything would beat doing construction, a skill which most of my male artist friends seemed to fall back upon...) While living in SF, I went back to technical school and received a degree in Electronic Engineering. However, when I emerged into the job market with my new knowledge, I found myself working at a small microcomputer startup, Micromation, located in the lovely North Beach neighborhood of SF. I was doing hardware diagnostics and programming. Although I continued to make video art, somehow the video/TV engineering thread got dropped as I went deeper into life as a full-fledged software engineer. So imagine my joy at now returning to the world of video engineering 50 years later - after retirement. Learning the basics of signal processing and glitching...
I'm posting a few of my early video works from 'back in the days' of neophyte vidiots, EAI, The Kitchen (in Soho), Mudd Club video nights, and analog video processing via The Experimental Television Center.
Chernobyl West 1986 (7:48)
Greetings From Vacationland 1986 (28:02)
I just completed a short video piece call "ORACLE" scrounging footage collected over the years. It's sort of the equivalent to an 'ear worm'... the idea has been floating around in my head for awhile. This makes use of real world footage and image processed footage (via LUMEN app for MacOS). The final program is 2:30 in length. Enjoy!
Remember what Morphius told Neo in The Matrix - "What was said, was said for you alone."
More excepts from digitized library of my Experimental Television Center analog processed video footage [t.k.]
This is an example of footage I compiled and processed at ETC under the topic heading of 'Dreamtime'. It seems very hallucinatory or perhaps like a shamanic journey vision. The source footage was recorded at Storm King Art Park. Processing included the greytone 'wobbled' imagery rescanned from the Paik-Abe Wobbulator and keyed over the original. In this preset, the Wobulator control signals were set to create only a slight ripple in the horizontal scanlines, rather than creating a fully distorted 3D 'wrapped raster' effect. (This effect would be almost impossible to generate via today's digital apps.)
This is an example of footage I compiled and processed at ETC under the topic heading of 'tide pools' recorded originally at Point Reyes seashore in Marin County, CA. Colorization, frame buffering, slowmo, and luma-key processing was applied to the anemones in the pools as waves came rushing in and flowed back out. There is one spot in this sample (00:55) where the chaotic water becomes totally abstract, finally resolving into bubbly foam. (This is an example of an analog image processing preset that could be replicated today with digital apps.)
This is an example of footage I compiled and processed at ETC under the topic heading of 'diaspora' to eventually make use in a video about dislocation due to environmental or political disruptions. The original footage was recorded during a Halloween parade in Oswego, NY (where the Experimental Television Center was located) during one of my residencies there. Of particular interest is the red/blue alternating colorization being triggered by a low frequency square wave controlling the signal processing. Also, note the great high-contrast scan line graininess possible thru use of rescan.
PS: note the great skeleton zombie carrying rifle costume on the young boy walking this his father (at around 00:45).
This is an example of footage I compiled and processed at ETC under the topic heading of 'rowing a boat' to eventually make use in a video about death, Bardo, and spiritual transition - the core symbolism of rowing being from the Greek myth of the Boatman Acheron rowing newly deceased souls across the River Styx into the Hell realms.
You may download or copy any image file (limit of 3) for use in your website as long as proper credit is provided: "Copyright 2003-2025 by Mark Gilliland - http://www.image-maya.org" This credit tag may be included as a caption, or alternatively within the IMG element's "ALT" attribute. (See details of the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License via link below.)
Please email to notify me about any such use of my art. Thank-you.
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