HOMUNCULUS⁣ .⁣ Over the next few weeks, as we get closer to the opening of "HOMUNCULUS, or the planets seen through my childhood window," I will be sharing images from the exhibition. For now, here are the adult characters from Le Petit Prince. These illustrations were, in particular, influential in the compositions of my photographs. ⁣ .⁣ "The prince travels to a series of asteroids, each featuring a grown-up who has been reduced to a function. The first is a king who requires obedience but has no subjects until the arrival of the prince. The sole inhabitant of the next planet is a conceited man who wants nothing from the prince but flattery. The prince subsequently meets a drunkard, who explains that he must drink to forget how ashamed he is of drinking. The fourth planet introduces the prince to a businessman, who maintains that he owns the stars, which makes it very important that he know exactly how many stars there are. The prince then encounters a lamplighter, who follows orders that require him to light a lamp each evening and put it out each morning, even though his planet spins so fast that dusk and dawn both occur once every minute. Finally the prince comes to a planet inhabited by a geographer. The geographer, however, knows nothing of his own planet, because it is his sole function to record what he learns from explorers. He asks the prince to describe his home planet, but when the prince mentions the flower, the geographer says that flowers are not recorded because they are ephemeral. The geographer recommends that the little prince visit Earth." (Britannica summary of "Le Petit Prince")⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ ⁣ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣ #homunculus #igersottawa #myottawa #igerstoronto⁣
HOMUNCULUS, or the planets seen through my childhood window⁣ .⁣ OPENING: Wednesday, May 8 | 5-9PM⁣ ON-VIEW: May 1-16, 2019⁣ .⁣ Northern Contemporary Gallery ⁣ @northerncontemporary⁣ ⁣ .⁣ Featured exhibition at the 2019 Scotiabank CONTACT Festival⁣ .⁣ As a child, I wanted to be an astronaut when I grew older. I spent countless hours alone on my bed using my viewmaster to explore the universe, imagining that one day I would see the planets with my own eyes. Recently, I found myself sleeping in that same bed. Once the feelings of nostalgia faded, thoughts entered my mind about failing to become who I wanted to be.⁣ .⁣ "HOMUNCULUS, or the planets seen through my childhood window" is an installation of photo-based work that draws upon these feelings of failure and vulnerability, crafting a narrative that allows the viewer to visit seven fictive planets through stereoscopic viewmasters. The figures on each planet are variations on the artist’s body after being 3D-scanned and 3D-printed. In addition to interpreting alchemical notions of the early planets, the figures also reference compositions and themes found in Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, which features a boy exploring the universe to understand what coming-of-age means. ⁣ .⁣ Just as a child would, I use my imagination to confront, categorize, and conquer troubling aspects of my reality. My body and art art are vessels to visualize my fictions. ⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ ⁣ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣ #homunculus #alchemy #viewmaster #childhood #igersottawa #igerstoronto #myottawa #spao_613 #spao #3D #3Dprinting⁣
HOMUNCULUS⁣ .⁣ The biggest influence on my newest project is the book "Le Petit Prince."⁣ .⁣ The Little Prince, French Le Petit Prince, fable and modern classic by French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry that was published with his own illustrations in French as Le Petit Prince in 1943. The simple tale tells the story of a child, the little prince, who travels the universe gaining wisdom. The novella has been translated into hundreds of languages and has sold some 200 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books in publishing history.⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #ottawaphotographers #igersottawa #myottawa #igerstoronto #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣ #homunculus⁣
HOMUNCULUS⁣ .⁣ I just returned from a journey through the Swiss mountainside and somehow ended up at the beginning of it all... my childhood bedroom. ⁣ .⁣ Once the feelings are nostalgia faded, I was left with a feeling of shame. Here I was, sitting and thinking about all the things I could never be. ⁣ .⁣ I always wanted to be an astronaut. As a child, this was a possibility. Anything felt possible back then. But becoming an adult is the slow realization that we are all limited. ⁣ .⁣ I will never physically leave this planet. Only in my mind can I imagine a life beyond Earth. This feeling was the inception of "HOMUNCULUS, or the planets seen through my childhood bedroom."⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ ⁣ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣ #homunculus⁣
HOMUNCULUS⁣ .⁣ After filming Wanderweg, I fell into a deep depression. I was directionless. Lost. Unable to find myself on a map.⁣ .⁣ I returned home to my childhood room like many of us do in our late twenties. Adults in body, sure, but our minds can still slip into child-like tendencies. I needed the sanctuary of my bedroom.⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ ⁣ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣ #homunculus⁣
HOMUNCULUS⁣ .⁣ This project begins with a view from my childhood bedroom. This was where I sat alone pretending I was anywhere else. I used my imagination to travel to far-off mountains and to the edge of our solar system. There were no limits. I was limitless. ⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣ #homunculus⁣
WANDERWEG . The final shot of me is standing in front of a window. I close the window, take off my hat, and turn the camera off. The journey is over. . However, the image of the window has remained with me. . Perhaps the next project is just on the other side... . . . #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣ #homunculus
WANDERWEG⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Near the end of the film, I juxtapose the moment of me finding the letter with the moment when I hid the letter. The two hands of the same clock coming together. A moment of simultaneity. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ From the moment I hid the letter, I had this image in my mind. Two Neekos. Two different times. The same space. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣⠀
WANDERWEG⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ When I wrote the letter to myself, I didn't know when I would read it. In a way, it was a way to end a life-changing year... but I always knew that the letter would be the beginning of something new. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣⠀
WANDERWEG . I hid the letter inside of a clock, which was then placed in the attic of a house in the mountains. I wrote the letter for my future self...but I didn’t know when that would be. . Finding it felt like a compression of time. My past coming into the present. . Einstein says that if you travel closer to the speed of light, time slows down and the present begins to engulf the past and future into a single moment. . When you photograph yourself, you become light.
An excerpt of "Wandering in Relativity" a film review by Pat Mullen⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity features a bunch of complex concepts that an artistically minded person like myself will never fully comprehend. The gist of it, I gather, is that people perceive things differently based on the frame of reference from which they are observing. Time can be experienced differently for two people, depending on what they’re looking at and how they’re looking at it. Regardless of my convoluted grasp of Einstein, his theory of relativity offers a stirring theoretical footnote to Wanderweg, Neeko Paluzzi’s beautiful self-portrait on how we observe our place in the world.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Wanderweg, as Neeko explains, offers a chance to re-observe his time in Switzerland from a fresh perspective. He will return to Wengen and read the letter that awaits him. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Wanderweg is a much better film for Neeko’s episode of paralysis and self-doubt, as it allows for lengthy passages of introspection. It’s during this early segment that Neeko takes a few days to freshen up and visit the Einstein Museum in Bern. As Neeko films himself trolling the displays like a flâneur, he stumbles upon a video that explains the aforementioned Theory of Relativity.⁣⠀ Einstein’s notes, for which the wanderer seems to have a special affinity, stress the importance of standing still to see the full picture.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Wanderweg is fun and accessible despite its languid, experimental style. The style itself complements Einstein’s theory on experiential differences, as Wanderweg frequently calls attention to the passage of time through self-portraits on pendulum clocks and observational long takes. This idiosyncratic memoir could easily inspire fellow travellers and film buffs at festivals, galleries, or wherever soul-searching wanderers are found.⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀
WANDERWEG⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ My original plan for Wanderweg was to walk across Switzerland and film myself along the way...⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Well, that didn't happen. I failed on my first day walking after realizing I couldn't carry my backpack for 30km per day. Silly me.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ I ended up in #Bern with more time staying still than walking. I couldn't help but be influenced by the city. This was the home of the famous #Zytglogge (a clock in the centre of the old town) and, of course, Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Einstein was inspired by the trams running along the narrow streets and wondered about the different "frames of reference," and how time changes based on the passengers on the tram verses those on the street. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ This idea sparked something in me, and it shifted the entire direction of Wanderweg. This was not just a road movie... it was a film about time. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Although I was physically making the film in 2012, I kept referencing moments from 2007. This constant switching back and forth made me feel like I was time travelling. And this is what photography can do. Even though it is a cliche, the camera is a time machine. It captures light from a particular moment. Not just conceptually... but physically as well. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ To visualize this, clocks are referenced throughout Wanderweg. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .#paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣⠀
WANDERWEG.⁣ .⁣ When I wrote the letter to my future self, I hid it in a clock.⁣ .⁣ ⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣
WANDERWEG⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ This film is a "reflexive road movie," meaning that is is a road movie ABOUT a road movie. It is highly aware of itself.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ These are some key moments when I address the camera and remind the viewer that I am making a film.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣⠀
WANDERWEG⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ As I mentioned in a previous post, Caspar David Friedrich's compositions were something in my mind when I went to go back the film. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ These "wanderer shots" were inter-cut throughout the film. There are 26 cantons in Switzerland, and during my time there, I filmed in each one. From the mountains in Graubünden to the topical shore of Ticin, I walked and rode the train to every corner in Switzerland.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣⠀
WANDERWEG⁣ .⁣ Before returning home after my exchange year in Switzerland, I wrote my future self a letter and hid it in a house in the mountains. Five years later, I returned with a backpack and camera to read the letter. This film is a document of that journey.⁣ .⁣ Wanderweg premiered on Thursday, May 7, 2013 at the Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa, ON.⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ .⁣ . ⁣ ⁣ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣
UNTERWEGS, or the thoughts of a lonesome traveller⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ This is my last post about my first book. It's only fitting to end with the artist who inspired a generation of travellers –– including myself! The romantic paintings of Caspar David Friedrich make you want to venture into a deep forest... while simultaneously make you weary of the unknown. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ The lonesome traveller standing in a vast landscape was the single composition I had in my mind for Wanderweg. For me, and hopefully for Friedrich himself, this lonesome traveller was so much more than a tourist. ⁣⠀ . ⁣⠀ “[...] We know of such roads in real forests, roads which seem to lead somewhere, but which end in the unnavigable. Such paths are paradoxical, since their existence means that someone was already there, yet their abrupt endings make us wonder where their creators have gone. We finally wonder whether they are paths at all. Like Heidegger’s Holzwege, they bring us to the threshold of something never seen before. To pursue such paths is to enter the new, although a new with a strange origins in the past.”⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ “[...] If I go into the painting’s space, seeking to stand where the turned traveller stands, I will feel myself being looked at from behind. It is interesting that patients suffering from autoscopy (the hallucination of seeing one’s self) feel the approach of their Doppelgänger through a burning sensation in the nape of their neck, as if someone were viewing them from behind.”⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ “[...] Friedrich’s paintings are strangely sadder, lonelier when they are inhabited by a turned figure than when they are empty. Who is this sole figure who halts before wandering into the painted world, who [...] hears his deathsong sung by the raven sitting in the margin that separates him from us.”⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Excerpts from Borrowed sight: The halted traveller in Caspar David Friedrich and William Wordsworth, written by Joseph Leo Koerner (1985).⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderw
UNTERWEGS, or the thoughts of a lonesome traveller⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Following my year abroad in Switzerland, I spent the next six years studying at the University of Ottawa (@uottawa), culminating in a Master's degree. My thesis contained two parts: an artistic component and a theoretical component.⁣⠀ . ⁣⠀ The theoretical component explored how certain filmmakers use reflexive imagery/behaviour in road movies. Frank Cole's "Life Without Death" and Agnes Varda's "The Gleaners And I" are two examples of this.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ In the end, I used these theories and applied them to my own reflexive road movie, "Wanderweg."⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣⠀
UNTERWEGS, or the thoughts of a lonesome traveller⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Music has always played an important role in my work. When a particular series of notes or lyrics hook me, I can listen to them over and over and over. Eventually, the music becomes intertwined with the work I am making. This is what happened with the sounds of Evening Hymns (@eveninghymns). Their music became the soundtrack for Wanderweg. ⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Did you know that the world is a mountain?⁣⠀ Did you know that the world is a river?⁣⠀ Did you know that the world is a mountain?⁣⠀ Did you know that one day we would meet on a hill?⁣⠀ We would meet on a hill.⁣⠀ Oh my life is now built upon wheels which means I’m always moving on. Through the forest and out to the desert where my head’ll finally clear. And your face will be permanently etched underneath of my eyelids. You sleep in the hull of my ship,deep in the pit of my guts, always talking outside of my room on this ship that I never could steer.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ Lyrics from "Mtn. Song" by Evening Hymns⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣⠀
UNTERWEGS, or the thoughts of a lonesome traveller⁣.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ "Conscious of the fact that the photograph often stands for memory, we can create images with this in mind, placing the self within the landscape gently but deliberately, engaging with it rather than asserting ownership over it. Here, we send postcards to ourselves; we think we know what will be waiting for us when we get home, but that which we find when we return is sheathed in the warm glow of memory."⁣⠀ ⁣.⁣⠀ ⁣"The landscape, no matter how it is represented, will always contain the human subject and viewer, whether or not we are visible within the confines of the frame."⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ ⁣Excerpts from the book chapter, "Landscape and the Self," written by Olivia Johnston (@olijohn) with images provided by Emma Wieslander.⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ .⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ ⁣⠀ #paluzzi #photography #art #photobook #filmphotography #yow #yyz #contactphotographyfestival #contactfestival #contactphotography #myottawa #toronto #torontoart #contemporaryart #analogueart #modernart #conceptualart #wanderweg #unterwegs⁣⠀