2019
16mm transferred to HD video
7 minutes

Weaving together scenes from the movie Contact with 16mm footage shot at the Very Large Array — the radio astronomy observatory in New Mexico, as well as three Mayan pyramids across the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico—Calakmul, Uxmal, and Cobá, Pyramids and Parabolas I is the first of a multi-episodic infinite film series that imagines how geometric forms can function as portals into parallel dimensions. The parabolic shape of modern day radio telescopes—made to listen to signals emitted by celestial objects and events, and similarly the pyramidal shapes of ancient Mayan monoliths—where priests communed with forces beyond the human realm, can both be understood as ways of transiting into alternate universes.

Pyramids and Parabolas is an infinite film series that explores our relationship to the natural world by examining how we communicate with the unknown universe through geometric structures.
 
The idea of an infinite film series allows each episode to take on a looseness and autonomy in order to experiment freely with the serial form. From collage, to essayist, to abstract, each installment of the series assumes a different genre, which can be independent of the others. The episodes all-together form a total work of art with a common theme and interconnected narrative threads. As the series unfolds, Pyramids and Parabolas will shape shift and take on a life of its own. New ideas and formal experiments may emerge from the openness of the film form that is not predetermined. 

More info:
aqnb.com/2019/05/20/alice-wang