Incantations on view at Riverfront Art Gallery

 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

view on vimeo

https://vimeo.com/1146248666

https://vimeo.com/markgilliland

Incantations

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

source Prayer Wheel image

In Memory of Armand

It's hard to unexpectedly lose a long-time buddy, fellow artist, DIY craftsman, avid gardener, husband, father... Our thoughts are with your lovely wife and daughter.

Be well, my friend, on your journey.

What do you want? (Dance of the Skeletons)

Official video for the song What Do You Want? from the Gotye album Boardface

Animated and directed by Lucinda Schreiber
Lucinda on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/user1657924

*******************************************
What do you want?
What do you want from us?
To ask you this much is just a matter of trust
Not an affront
What do you want?

Few here'd be true to your point of view
If they knew
What you want
Who here would choose
To walk in those shoes
Even you can't

So what do you want?
What do you want from us?

What do you want
What do you want that you cannot say?
Show us the faith we're supposed to display
Come what may...
You can't!

So what do you want?
What do you want from us?
It's a matter of trust
That you tell us just
What you want from us

Psychedelic Skull

Here's one from Skull-a-Day blog:

347. Skulledelic A.K.A. May Cause Seizures Skull

Allen Ginsberg: Father Death Blues