_L'HEURE BLEUE
On the walls of a small self-built room four "alive" paintings are hanging. Four films are projected (from an invisible outside room) on the canvas. The paintings are seascapes on which lighthouses can be seen on the horizon. They seem to communicate with each other and with the viewer.
The films are shot during L'heure bleue, or the moment that twilight merges into darkness. At the beginning of the films (they last 17 minutes) the ocean, the waves, the air and its seagulls are clearly perceptible, but as time goes by the paintings get more and more abstract. In the end only the lights of the lighthouses can be seen.
Details about 'L'heure bleue'
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Medium: video installation, duration films; 17 minutes in a loop)
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Size: space; 330cm x 330cm x 250cm
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Size 'paintings' 100cm x 70cm
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Festival Boulevard, s'Hertogenbosch,
the Netherlands, 2001
Reviews about 'L'heure bleue'
"...Beautifully stilled is Esther van Waalwijk's video-installation L'heure bleue. In a small room four paintings are hanging on the wall. They are linen screens on which four sunsets are projected that were filmed on the coast of Bretagne. They all seem to be an impressionist painting gradually changing into an abstract canvas. The changes in shade of colour and light have the beauty of a Monet..."
_AD, Mirjam Keunen, 9th of August 2001
"Painting of Monet with light and sound.."
Now Esther van Waalwijk's wonderful video-installation works excellent. In a small room she projects on four screens a sunset above the sea in Bretagne. The screens have a wooden frame and a gauzy canvas. This creates an atmosphere like that of a painting by Monet. But then again, the movement of the lighthouse's light, a flying seagull and the sound of the waves disturb this effect. The video-sunset lasts twenty minutes and as the screens are the only means of light, the peaceful experience of getting dark is very real...."
_Brabants Dagblad, Gerrit van den Hoven, 9th of August 2001