[The Edge of Time]
The Edge of Time was my first solo digital art exhibition and opened at Carol Banner's Katz Gallery on September 6th 2008 and ended on November 16, but since it's digital you can still order a canvas print.
There are actually two edges of time in this Exhibition: the lower edge is roughly 1460AD, just prior to the earthquake that turned Motukairangi Island into the Miramar Peninsula we see today, and the upper is about 2200AD when rising sea levels drown the Haitatai isthmus once again, recreating Motukairangi.
The exhibition panoramas of the Wellington region are accurate digital photographic reconstructions of scenes that either haven't existed or won't exist for centuries. Although they look like photographs they are composites of many photographs, dozens in some cases, shot over several years in a variety of locations with suitably relocatable flora. Where nothing suitable existed, elements were made from scratch using Maya 3D software.
I use digital tools and compositing techniques to stitch together the perfect picture of something that doesn't exist. Is this any different from a portrait painter painting their subject over a period of weeks?
You decide.
Click on the images below to see larger versions and a few before and afters of the 16 pictures in the exhibition. The originals are all prints on canvas. Click here to see the invite and newspaper reviews.
16 Permanent Recess
2200AD: Wellington has been abandoned to the rising oceans and two centuries of global warming have returned the swampy pre-colonial shoreline to the steps of Parliament Buildings. Earthquakes have crumbled what remains, and it is sinking slowly into the saturated soil. Renowned as one of the world's ugliest buildings, The Beehive (on the left) won't be missed.
FOOTNOTE: Wairarapa National Party MP John Hayes bought a copy of this, presumably for his Beehive Office.
2200AD: Wellington has been abandoned to the rising oceans and two centuries of global warming have returned the swampy pre-colonial shoreline to the steps of Parliament Buildings. Earthquakes have crumbled what remains, and it is sinking slowly into the saturated soil. Renowned as one of the world's ugliest buildings, The Beehive (on the left) won't be missed.FOOTNOTE: Wairarapa National Party MP John Hayes bought a copy of this, presumably for his Beehive Office.
1 Motukairangi, summer, 1460AD
Motukairangi Island looking south from the summit of what is now Mt. Victoria, the day before the earthquake that pushed up the Hataitai isthmus and created Wellington's Miramar Peninsula. Global warming means that the shallow channel with a single low island in the distance (where the airport is now) will return in the next few hundred years.
Motukairangi Island looking south from the summit of what is now Mt. Victoria, the day before the earthquake that pushed up the Hataitai isthmus and created Wellington's Miramar Peninsula. Global warming means that the shallow channel with a single low island in the distance (where the airport is now) will return in the next few hundred years.
2 Red Rocks
Red Rocks looking south towards the South Island. Only the ocean is digitally altered to stitch the waves seamlessly. Repeated Antarctic storms have made sure that this weatherbeaten south facing coastline has always looked pretty much the same as it does now.
Red Rocks looking south towards the South Island. Only the ocean is digitally altered to stitch the waves seamlessly. Repeated Antarctic storms have made sure that this weatherbeaten south facing coastline has always looked pretty much the same as it does now.
3 Scorching Bay 1460AD
Note the lower shoreline. Repeated earthquakes have lifted the modern shoreline several metres above the one depicted in this reconstruction. I noticed the remains of barnacles left stranded several metres above the high tide line when I went swimming here during my secondary school days.
Note the lower shoreline. Repeated earthquakes have lifted the modern shoreline several metres above the one depicted in this reconstruction. I noticed the remains of barnacles left stranded several metres above the high tide line when I went swimming here during my secondary school days.
4 Owhiro Bay 1450AD
Wellington as it was before colonisation - and as it will be again when the oceans rise and we are gone. This is the view you would have seen looking east towards Cape Palliser across Owhiro Bay. The Island that gives Island Bay its name is dead ahead.
Wellington as it was before colonisation - and as it will be again when the oceans rise and we are gone. This is the view you would have seen looking east towards Cape Palliser across Owhiro Bay. The Island that gives Island Bay its name is dead ahead.
5 Wellington Harbour
Wellington as it was before colonisation - and as it will be again when the oceans rise and we are gone. This is the view you would have seen looking south from the lower slopes of the Tinakori Hills below Wadestown. Most of Wellington Central is on reclaimed land.
Wellington as it was before colonisation - and as it will be again when the oceans rise and we are gone. This is the view you would have seen looking south from the lower slopes of the Tinakori Hills below Wadestown. Most of Wellington Central is on reclaimed land.
6 Waingawa Flood
A sign of things to come: Global Warming makes wet places even wetter, as we've seen recently. This is what you'd see from the Waingawa Bridge if the Waingawa River flooded the Wairarapa plain. The Tararua snow cover is real and was shot on August 20th, 2008.
A sign of things to come: Global Warming makes wet places even wetter, as we've seen recently. This is what you'd see from the Waingawa Bridge if the Waingawa River flooded the Wairarapa plain. The Tararua snow cover is real and was shot on August 20th, 2008.
7 A Perfect Jane Sinclair Day
Wairarapa painter Jane Sinclair’s uncanny ability to capture the perfect and vast Wairarapa landscape on canvas amazes and inspires me, and this image is an attempt to digitally replicate her style, using the source imagery from the pic called Clareville Anamorphosis.
Wairarapa painter Jane Sinclair’s uncanny ability to capture the perfect and vast Wairarapa landscape on canvas amazes and inspires me, and this image is an attempt to digitally replicate her style, using the source imagery from the pic called Clareville Anamorphosis.
8 Clareville Anamorphosis
Anamorphosis was popular from about 1550 to 1850 and required a cylindrical mirror to work. The magic of Photoshop enables me to reproduce an modern approximation of this obscure method of rectangular to polar coordinates conversion, without resorting to mirrors.
Anamorphosis was popular from about 1550 to 1850 and required a cylindrical mirror to work. The magic of Photoshop enables me to reproduce an modern approximation of this obscure method of rectangular to polar coordinates conversion, without resorting to mirrors.
9 Cape Palliser
Cape Palliser as it was in the time before colonisation - and as it will be again when the oceans rise and we are gone. Untroubled by humans, a solitary seal is the only mammal as far as the windswept horizon.
Cape Palliser as it was in the time before colonisation - and as it will be again when the oceans rise and we are gone. Untroubled by humans, a solitary seal is the only mammal as far as the windswept horizon.
10 Metiria
Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei. This pic is one of the images from my controversial Green Party calendar earlier this year. The composite background imagery came from Mt Bruce Bird Sanctuary. The kaka that owns the feathers is still very much alive.
Source image by Victoria Mitchel
Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei. This pic is one of the images from my controversial Green Party calendar earlier this year. The composite background imagery came from Mt Bruce Bird Sanctuary. The kaka that owns the feathers is still very much alive.Source image by Victoria Mitchel
11 Lake Ferry Sunset 2
A solitary seagull returns from a day's fishing in this 5 image composite. All of the sky shots were taken within a few minutes of each other to bracket the initial seagull shot. Seagulls are notoriously difficult to work with as they will not perform on cue or do re-takes.
A solitary seagull returns from a day's fishing in this 5 image composite. All of the sky shots were taken within a few minutes of each other to bracket the initial seagull shot. Seagulls are notoriously difficult to work with as they will not perform on cue or do re-takes.
12 Lake Ferry Sunset 1
A timeless 3 image composite panorama of a perfectly still warm summer sunset, only mildly altered to stitch the clouds. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been in the right place, at the right time, with a digital camera good enough to capture this scene so well.
A timeless 3 image composite panorama of a perfectly still warm summer sunset, only mildly altered to stitch the clouds. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been in the right place, at the right time, with a digital camera good enough to capture this scene so well.
13 Driftwood Moko
A single shot of driftwood at Lake Ferry, digitally altered to create a traditional Moko design.
A single shot of driftwood at Lake Ferry, digitally altered to create a traditional Moko design.
14 Castlepoint 1460AD
Castlepoint looking north up the coastline with all traces of human habitation and farming on the far shore removed.
Castlepoint looking north up the coastline with all traces of human habitation and farming on the far shore removed.
15 Castlepoint No Lighthouse
A view that no-one alive has ever seen: Castlepoint without its iconic lighthouse, and minus the flotilla of fishing boats normally parked on the sand to the left of centre.
A view that no-one alive has ever seen: Castlepoint without its iconic lighthouse, and minus the flotilla of fishing boats normally parked on the sand to the left of centre.