Visual Sphere: Double Spiral, 1975
61 gelatin silver prints on paper, mounted on black mat board
installation: 410 x 420 cm; 32.4 x 48.1 cm each
National Gallery of Canada (no. 35551.1-61)
© Bill Vazan
Bill Vazan's photo-based conceptual pieces of the 1970s, in which he mapped his perceptual sphere, were an extension of his earlier earthworks. While he first used photographs as documentation for his Land Art, later he developed them into independent artworks. Offering a 360-degree view, Vazan's photoworks reconstruct the topology of the visual hemispheres that he photographs, and then deconstructs, restructures, and presents as grids, circles, or spirals. He counts on us to read the image as a whole, whereas in others, such as "Visual Sphere: Double Spiral", we follow the path of his camera and the modified perception of reality that the ensemble presents.