Eric Corriel Studios

multidisciplinary art studio • immersive and interactive public art • art activism • digital/electronic art • nyc

Yellow Forest

Site-specific video installation

Photo courtesy of Eric Corriel Studios

Yellow Forest fuses a patch of urban/industrial landscape with a patch of Andalusian landscape Shown at BAG Gallery, Brooklyn, New York

The urban/industrial landscape of Gowanus, Brooklyn, circa 2009, could be characterized by warehouses, red brick, grime, large transport trucks, buses, and shops ranging from tire to marble. The picturesque landscape of Andalusia in southern Spain is marked by olive and orange trees, artisanal ornamentation, narrow winding streets, and an incredibly warm light. The installation of the latter in the former creates a playful and visually compelling landscape all its own.

Nearly two years in the making, this piece has undergone several phases of evolution before manifesting as a site-specific installation in Brooklyn, New York. It started with marker-based landscape drawings of the Andalusian landscape on paper.

Four-color marker drawing of a minimalistic tree landscape on white paper. A yellow, gray, and burgundy-colored tree sits on the left of the page, casting a solid burgundy 10 o’clock shadow. To the left of the tree are three yellow, gray, and white cubes, and in the background is a swooping burgundy band.
Landscape drawing of Southern Spain
Four-color marker drawing of a minimalistic tree on white paper. The tree has blobby burgundy and burnt orange leaves, a burgundy and white trunk, and has two geometric cubes at its base. It casts a black 12 o’clock shadow.
These drawings would later be scanned and remade digitally

These drawings were scanned and reworked to create a digital, vector-based illustration.

Long and narrow digital illustration of two burgundy, yellow, and black trees, one at each side of the illustration. On the left side, the tree has a wide canopy and casts a dark 3 o’clock shadow. On the right side, the tree is taller with a smaller round canopy that casts a 9 o’clock shadow. In the background, a long burgundy and yellow organically shaped band connects the two trees over a long distance.
Digital drawing of the Spanish landscape

The vector-based illustration was then silkscreened on vellum for the Al Andaluz exhibit at the Musée des Beaux Arts, Dunkerque, France.

Photograph of three artworks, encased in transparent plexiglass, hanging from the ceiling against a white wall. Each artwork contains an element of a triptych, which taken together form a golden/yellow-ish abstract landscape with one tree on each side. The hanging artworks cast a complex array of shadows onto the wall behind.
The landscape drawing made into screen prints on vellum
Photograph of rolled-up screen prints, on golden yellow/orange paper sitting on the floor.
The color and quality of the paper mimicked the golden light of the actual landscape
Photograph of two artworks, encased in transparent plexiglass, hanging in a large open window. Each artwork contains an element of a diptych, which taken together form a golden/yellow-ish abstract landscape with one tree on each side. Several trees are visible behind the hanging artworks in the open window.
An important quality of the material is its opacity

Although the mockup below never materialized, it was my first attempt at transposing one landscape into another; a theme that would later find its way back into my work.

Photograph/realistic rendering of the side of a building with a car parked out front. On the facade of the building is a large mural depicting an abstract rendering of a predominantly burgundy and golden yellow landscape with two trees at the far ends connected by a flowing burgundy band.
Digital rendering of a possible mural project

Nearly a year after creating the original marker drawings, Yellow Forest took shape as an animation created with fluid dynamic particle systems.

The piece evolved yet again, into a large format video installation, which was presented as part of my thesis show at École Régionale Supérieure d’Expression Plastique in 2007.

Photograph of the back of a person, wearing blue jeans and a dark jacket, with a projection of abstract burgundy and yellow organically shaped forms that are also projected onto a large screen at the end of an industrial-looking space.
Yellow Forrest, original installation as presented for thesis show, 2007

In its final instantiation, this piece has gone from being about the landscape to being part of it.

Nighttime photograph of a large, three-story industrial brick building. In the top floor, four center windows display a projection of an abstract, fluid yellow band. In the foreground is a person standing with a yellow umbrella.
Yellow Forest, site-specific video installation, 2009

Yellow Forest—the site-specific video installation— was conceived for the BAG Gallery show SURFACE - Contemporary Artists Interpret Landscape, which ran from March 20, 2009 to April 2, 2009. This piece runs for 1'06 on loop and measures 24' x 6'.