Artist: Hélène Daldoss
Title: “Glow”
Medium: Digital Video
Run-time: 2 min 12 sec

Artist Statement

Glow is a series of microshorts shot in various locations across Colorado. The concept behind “Glow” is to capture the experience of being present with the natural world. When we step outside, we are often struck suddenly by moments of beauty—the sun shining through newly opened leaves, the light glinting off the surface of a lake, a tree silhouetted against a twilit sky. A photo or a video can reproduce the visual and auditory aspects of these sudden sparks of glory, but they always fall short of the full experience.

The magic of these moments is not in what they look like and sound like, but what they feel like. “Glow” is an attempt to reproduce that feeling through digital manipulation of short clips captured during such flashes of splendor.

How can art transmit the feeling of the wind as it gently shakes newly formed maple seeds? How can art induce the same experience of mindful presence that we can attain when we step outside into the open air? These were the questions on my mind as I created “Glow,” and the answers came in the form of abstract colors, sounds, and movements that create unexpected resonances.

Images are transposed upon one another, colors are shifted toward neon palettes, natural and artificial soundscapes blend together. From the mingling of these unlikely elements, a new sensation can arise in the viewer—an artistic “translation” of being swept away by nature, in all her unexpected magnificence.

I hope you will let these brief clips wash over you an connect you to the unique experience of being present—truly, startlingly present—with all the forms of beauty the Colorado Outdoors have to offer us.

Biography

Hélène Daldoss is a Colorado-native filmmaker and video artist whose work features surreal sequences, poetic dialogue, and innovative use of sound. Thematically, she focuses on economic inequality, subconscious motivations in relationships, and what happens when people let go. Her first feature film, CAPTIVITY, was released in 2021 and is available on Amazon. Her short work has screened at LA Film Festival, Den-Ex Film Fest, Mile Hi Mocs and Docs, and Colorado Independent Women of Film Festival, among others. She is currently working on a dystopian sci-fi romance about how, when society breaks down, chaotic hedonism is the only thing that still makes sense. She is also a translator of poetry, notably Roberto Bolaño’s “Infrarealist Manifesto” and the work of Mario Santiago Papasquiaro, published by La Ratona Cartonera. You can see more of her short experimental pieces at their website.