The Lake Series is an ongoing collection of films broadly exploring individual struggles and triumphs as defined within social constructs. These works are open-ended meditations, designed for the viewer to project and reflect on their own experiences.
Each of the films’ themes and titles are derived from a human trait or quality that is discovered during the filming of the imagery. The works are inspired by a number of personal experiences including my current proximity to Lake Erie and the first-hand witnessing of both the boundless joy and utter destruction that can come from water.
The use of extreme slow motion is critical to the experience of the work. This deliberate temporal manipulation allows the viewer to disengage from normal time and provides an avenue for deeper contemplation. Expectations of cause and effect are challenged, forcing the viewer to re-evaluate his or her relationship to the imagery and possible meanings.
Water can be intimate or expansive, life giving or life destroying. It is eternal, ephemeral, and in a constant state of change, and therefore a perfect element to address the vicissitudes of life.
Phil Hastings 2014
Phil Hastings is an artist and filmmaker whose work has been exhibited internationally. He is a 2012 NYFA Film/Video Fellow and was an invited artist in the 18th Biennale of Sydney where his film Steadfast was screened at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. His personal films include animation, experimental and narrative modes of working and draw on his background in sculpture, and often have a connection to the sciences. His video documentation of the sexual cannibalism and reproduction practices of praying mantis has been licensed for the National Geographic television show Animal Taboos and the New Scientist Magazine. He is a former director of the Big Muddy Film Festival and received his MFA in cinema from Southern Illinois University and his BFA from Columbus College of Art and Design. He currently teaches experimental film and video in the Department of Visual Arts and New Media at SUNY Fredonia.