Veronica Vossen

‘Aeonic’ is a current long-term project prospecting issues on evolutionary timespans of the ecological balance of the biosphere and the challenges to regeneration and sustainability in the face of anthropogenic depredations and climate change. 

Visual and audio narratives focus on the ecological balance of Earth’s biosphere exploring aeonic timespans of its evolutionary processes and remains, as opposed to the relative ‘eye-blink’ of the present Age of the Anthropocene and its human depredations.  The resultant series of work ‘Tellus Nullius’ draws on earth sciences, meteorology, geology, paleontology and climatology.

In 2023 the immersive 3-channel video installation ‘Tellus Nullius Tria’ had its first public presentation in 'Aeonic' exhibition at An Talla Solais Gallery, Ullapool within the remote NW Highland area where, over 5 years, I photographed, filmed and developed the project.  In an immersive space with ambient elemental sound, the installation's hypnotic visual and audio rhythms induce a state of reverie and contemplation of the aeonic timespan of the evolution of the Earth's ecosphere.

In 2024 I developed 2 single channel films 'Tellus Nullius -Sola' and ‘Oceanus Nullius’ from the immersive installation.  These have been internationally shown as screen films & installations.

In my wider art practice and connected research I am concerned with liminal perception in visual consciousness, and how moving between still and moving image disrupts and transforms time consciousness. Through immersive moving image installation, I aim to invoke an altered and receptive state of consciousness. These were the core concerns in my doctoral and post-doctoral practice-based research projects at University of East London and the Slade School of Fine Art collaborating with neuroscience of vision research projects. 

Constructing moving image works from video and still images I play with video timecodes, slowing time to enhance visual attention and perception. I manipulate photographic images, working often with inverted (negative) versions, fascinated by how perceptual slippage of colour /tone inversion accentuates materiality yet disturbs perceptual certainties. From accumulated still I construct a form of “slide-motion film”- multiple stills cumulated into dissolving image/time sequences, interspersed and underlaid with moving image sequences, shifting between stillness and motion in a constructed temporal rhythm, engaging metanarratives on temporal and perceptual ambiguity and estrangement. 

After some years living and working in a studio in Hackney, London, since 2015 I work between a studio in the contemporary creative hub of Peckham, London and the far northwest of Scotland, where I am involved in activism to preserve and regenerate the damaged marine ecology, a central focus in the recent series of work. The resulting experience of dichotomy between the two realms of consuming urban metropolis and threatened wilderness accentuates the content and purpose of my present work.  For the last decade I have developed a committed Art and Ecology focus in my work and curatorial projects. Core issues are aeonic timescales of the planet in opposition to the depredations of our human age of the Anthropocene and its depredations.

In 2023 the ‘Aeonic’ project was presented in an exhibition at An Talla Solais Gallery, Ullapool, Scotland in the Highland region where, over 5 years, I photographed, filmed and developed the project.  The central work ‘Tellus Nullius: Tria, ’ is a 3 channel immersive video installation from which the single channel videos have been developed further for screening in cinematic and site-specific locations.  These have been screened and exhibited internationally in film festivals and exhibitions throughout 2024 in Tokyo, Athens, Barcelona, Berlin, London, Calabria Italy, Copenhagen, Seoul and in the Immersive Dome, Plymouth, UK.

Previous work has been presented in exhibitions, installations and site-specific interventions and screenings in Edinburgh, Inverness, London, and across the UK and Europe, not only in independent and public galleries, but also in unusual locations. These were often in buildings of defunct usage eg. old pub, warehouse, defunct offices and bank, Strand Underground Station, railway arches, old cinema and church etc. 

I initially developed my practice through a Fine Art Master’s and then Doctorate and research programs in London at UeL and the Slade School of Art, UCL.  My doctoral thesis “Mapping the Visible: Vision & Perception within Lens & Time-based Practice” addressed issues of ambiguity and alterity in visual and temporal perception in film and photographic imagery and in immersive installation exploring altered states of consciousness. 

This was within a ‘Science/ Art’ context in collaborative projects with research & academic organisations including University College London and King’s College London, presenting work in the medical school and research centres.