Artist Profile: Billy Ryan
This is part of a series of interviews with Sugar Glider Digital’s artists, where we explore their practice and perspectives on digital art.
BILLY RYAN, FARAWAY GUMS“There is something truly surreal about moving through a space at one speed while the world rushes past at another. ”
When, and why did you start making digital art?
I have been involved in the realm of digital art since my teenage years, starting in the late 90s. During that time, I developed a keen interest in both the visual arts, including painting and photography, as well as filmmaking. In the early 2000’s I was drawn to more experimental, energetic and eye-catching uses of filmmaking and video. Particularly the non-narrative works of Ron Fricke and Godfrey Reggio. Watching Baraka proved to be a pivotal moment as it liberated me from the notion that I had to rely on traditional storytelling and actors. I love the idea of landscape portraiture - of capturing a background landscape with the same cinematic artistry we might apply to an actor in the foreground.
Concurrently, I was studying a lot of music videos, drawing inspiration from the likes of Michel Gondry and Chris Cunningham. I was also drawn to graphic studios like Designers Republic who were creating really energetic expressionistic videos in consumer software like Flash and Photoshop.
For me, digital art occupies a unique space that bridges the worlds of art, filmmaking, and technology. It serves as a platform where I can merge these disciplines and explore their interconnectedness.
How has your digital art practice evolved since you started?
I really began at university by experimenting with lapse animation, specifically timelapse and primitive hyperlapse techniques, using a DSLR camera. Even today, I am deeply fascinated by the concept of time as a malleable entity that can be manipulated and experienced through technology. There is something truly surreal about moving through a space at one speed while the world rushes past at another.
I’m inspired and drawn to nature and its ability to connect me to a sense of wonder and imagination. Broadly, I’m interested in exploring "the Unseen." I define this as the ethereal realm that surrounds us but we cannot always see. To visualise these hidden dimensions, I utilize technology - a full spectrum camera - that is capable of capturing natural environments through lightwaves that are invisible to the human eye, such as infrared and ultraviolet.
I approach technology from an expressionistic perspective, using it as a tool to reveal truths within our world and to venture into the realm of dreams beyond our own. This technology-enhanced perspective offers a captivating and surreal glimpse into the unseen and encourages viewers to perceive the world in a new and thought-provoking way.
Tell us about your favourite digital art project.
AMA is the biggest and most ambitious project I have been involved in. It is an immersive 360 experience/film/dreamscape created in collaboration with my new media arts collective Babekühl and Sydney musician Phondupe.
The project was captured using a combination of infrared, ultraviolet-induced fluorescence, and the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. It delves into the liminal space where the ocean meets the land and poses the question: What does nature look like when it dreams?
Over the course of three years, we meticulously crafted AMA, which made its debut in May as part of VIVID Sydney. It is a truly fantastic and unique experience! I am eager to see it screened at more festivals worldwide in the near future.
BABEKUHL, AMA FOR VIVID SYDNEY, 2023What would you like to see more of in the digital art world?
More collectives, more collaborations, more dedicated spaces in galleries, more immersive experiences, More exploration of both old and new technologies.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to try making digital art?
Experiment, read books, collaborate with others. Have lots of creative inputs and inspirations. Look to the arts broadly, not just similar digital art in the same space. Allow room in your life to be obsessive in a pursuit of art or whatever you seek to achieve.
What projects are you working on at the moment?
Two interesting ones to mention:
First is my ongoing series called Faraway Gums - this is a photographic and video study of the Sydney Red gum. A majestic, unique and beautiful native Australian species of gum trees. I’ve been shooting this series since 2019 in various infrared wavelengths and it’s close to being complete. As it has been developing over the past few years, I’ve had the fortune of working with Sugar glider digital and Art Pharmacy on a number of pieces from this series. It has been presented in Dexus locations in both Brisbane and Melbourne and most recently the series has been licensed by the City of Sydney as part of their ‘Creative hoarding program’. I’m looking forward to seeing stills from it pop up around Sydney more and more over the next year or two.
The second project is ‘Utz Richter and the Paranormal Megaliths’. A large multimedia body of work Babekühl has been working on over the past few years. It is a parafiction multimedia artwork in the spirit of Marcel Duchamp and Jean-Jacques Lequeu. It centres on photographer, mystic, technician and inventor, Utz Richter, and his archive of unique imagery and his spiritual quest to tap into the subconscious of our world.
Where can we see more of your work?
Bio
Billy Ryan is an artist and filmmaker based in Sydney, Australia.
His works aims to explore the unseen, capturing the familiar as wondrous, exotic and uncanny. Ryan employs the use of a full spectrum infrared camera - capturing the natural environments via light waves which are invisible to the human eye.
This technology-enhanced perspective is hypnotic and alluring, rendering landscapes and environments that feel both intensely hyper-real and instantly familiar. Billy Ryan’s works are available for subscription via Sugar Glider Digital, enquire within.