Using a device known as zoetrope – a spinning cylinder that illustrates motion in a series of images – Ella Morton created a kinetic installation involving images of the Canadian and American landscape. The photos were on semi-transparent 4x5” inch film, so that when the zoetrope spun, the images blend together in animation. Through movement and imagery, Geotrope explored how we relate to time and place, and how we confront mystery and the unknown.

Extending into public space was the installation Roadside Majestic: Celebrating the (Un)Charm of North America, which explored the culture of highway travel. The interactive artwork was a large and vaguely drawn map of North America with humorous landmarks written all over it. Participants were invited to write comments on provided markers and place them on the map. Participants could contribute photos through the Roadside Majestic blog, which accompanied the installation and can still be found at http://roadsidemajestic.blogspot.ca.

Ella Morton is a Canadian visual artist and filmmaker living in Toronto, on the land of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenoshaunee and the Wendat peoples. Her expedition-based practice has brought her to residencies and projects across Canada, as well as in Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Finland. Working primarily with lens-based media, she uses experimental analogue processes to capture the sublime and fragile qualities of remote landscapes. Reflecting on how the medium of photography is changing in the digital age, she aims to uncover how photographs can show more than a straightforward depiction of reality, and how the alchemy of analogue techniques can be reinvented in the present day to tell deeper stories within images.

For more information about Morton and her work, visit her website.