Slow Ontology is Brazilian artist Marcellvs L.’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery which includes an immersive installation in the video room with a three-channel projection and four-channel sound. A new sound work titled Dreamlessness will also be presented on wireless headphones to be used throughout the gallery space. Through his work, Marcellvs L. employs a dilated sense of time and a sharp photographic eye combined with the investigation of acoustic phenomenon to alter our perception of the ordinary. 

The work Slow Ontology was recorded while traveling by boat down the British canals between Birmingham and Manchester. During the Industrial Revolution, the canal system played a key role in the emergence of modern capitalism. However, today its function has shifted and the canals are used almost exclusively for leisure. In the work, modulations of sound range from pure white noise to barely perceptible, bringing the tension between the pastoral landscape and the absence of industry in the built environment into stark relief. The only constant is the presence of the boat‘s engine. In this complex surrounding, the artwork insists on the instability of its reality. The camera captures a languid drift from a fixed point on the moving narrow boat, observing subtle changes in the environment. This effect slows the viewer’s attention, and is meant to heighten their sense of perception. As the journey advances, the act of becoming and permanence are integrated into a cycle of repetition. This includes elements that change through duration and elements that endure through change.