In 2005, Lucy Pullen hired a pilot to take her up in a Cessna over Vancouver Island, with then captured the event through the lens of a camera. With an impromptu flight plan, the pinol performs snap rolls by cutting the engine at 5,000 feet. An alarm sounds as the plane falls freely. Pullen splits the view between the pilot’s actions and the spectacular landscape outside the airplane’s window. As the plane takes a nose dive, the sensation of zero gravity is produced, demonstrated by an jbject that hovers for a moment in mid-air above the pilot’s hand. Irreverent and daring, the video stands as a document of a unique event and an unconventional representation of the West Coast landscape.
In a parallel quest, Pullen ventured north to witness the Aurora Borealis, with an interest in documenting the disturbed electromagnetic field. She never found the lights but she did find a communal jam production, experimentation and collective activity centred on music. Pullen’s interest in musit is analogous to her interest in the production and control of anarchic energy. The resulting diptych of photographs, titled Northern Lights, remains as evidence of her journey.
Pullen works in a wide range of media, including sculpture, photography, drawing and video. Her practice draws on the history of conceptual art while employing an experimental, visceral and often haptic approach to artmaking. She obtained a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design in Halifax in 1993 and an MFA from Tyler School of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia in 2001, and she is pursuing a PhD in media and communication at the European Graduate School. Pullen is an assistant professor at The University of Victoria. She has exhibited in Canada and internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver; Optica, Montreal; and Art Metropole in Toronto. Pullen lives and works in Victoria.
Kathleen Ritter