Durational video work — Zoom series

Sky I is part of the ongoing Zooms video series, a set of durational works that examine how context changes perception over time.

Each work in the series begins with multiple video frames presented simultaneously. At the start of the sequence, the viewer is positioned at a distance: the subjects appear abstract, ambiguous, or even unrecognizable within their environment.

Across the opening moments of the piece, each video slowly zooms inward toward its subject.

Once the subject becomes visible, the zoom stops. The videos then continue looping for the remainder of the work’s duration.

In Sky I, the five frames capture fragments of the sky and surrounding city environment — the sun, architectural details, a clock tower, a helicopter, and an American flag. What initially reads as pure abstraction gradually resolves into recognizable objects as the zoom reveals context.

But the work does not stabilize there.

Each loop operates at a slightly different duration. Because of these differences, the synchronized rhythm established at the beginning slowly dissolves as the video continues. Over the course of the nine-minute runtime, the timing of the frames drifts apart and recombines unpredictably.

The result is a subtle temporal spiral.

Images that once aligned fall out of phase.

Moments repeat against different visual neighbors.

Context continually rearranges itself.

What begins as a simple act of revealing a subject becomes an experiment in duration, rhythm, and perceptual instability.

Within the broader Ezra system, the Zooms series demonstrates how meaning shifts once context is introduced. Recognition does not resolve an image permanently; it only provides a temporary orientation before time begins reorganizing perception again.

The work becomes quietly hypnotic.

The viewer watches not only the images themselves, but the changing relationships between them as time passes.

Meaning does not settle.

It circulates.

Credits

Recorded by Seth Dager

Edited by Seth Dager