of linear ordinaries

the unordinary flourishes in the mundane

Consider this problem statement: how do we show up for our everyday lives without reinventing our motives? Given that- the concept of time and progress is relative, and that we will forever be cycling between endings and beginnings?

In his series of film photographs, titled "Desolate Surrealism", Nate Vrieze finds ways to evoke feelings of transience, desolation, and nostalgia. He works on elevating surreality within the stillness that surrounds him by driving narratives- new and recurring. Things that surround him could be plain viewings, or lonely environments that are stuck in time or slowly active.

"My favorite subject matter is in the places where you wouldn't ordinarily expect, and sometimes that in itself can be surreal because it is striking to see certain misplaced moments in these ordinary places."

Nate prefers film as the appropriate medium for this series because film demands that we slow down, and carefully compose the images. Film, quite like our individual ordinary lives, asks for constant communication with the self. Film asks that we stake a look at the most unapparent aspects of our lives and reinvent the narrative.

The series runs on a constant, underlying question: If you were an image, how would you describe yourself?

To which Nate says, "a pastel color palette, a balanced and desolate composition, and it would probably be shot on film."

I have been staring at that question for a while now ... trying to remember the first time I put a picture of myself on the internet. If I were an image- I would be a simulated existence on the internet, floating around in .jpegs; how would I describe myself- well, I would begin on a sheet of paper, sharpen my pencil, nurture my memory;

quiet the noise inside my head, rescind control and the physical laws of the world;

reach towards my body, and gently,

but ruthlessly,

depart from myself.

As if, a body, within a body.

For more of this, just come home.