David Kwan, Solaris, film still

In this show, two multi-channel video and sound installations by David Kwan invited the study of emergent systems, from their building blocks to their transformation into complex forms.

Inspired by end-of-land vistas of the greater Pacific Rim, TERMINUS is an evolving tableau of the vast light, water and landforms in this coastal expanse. Kwan collected images and sounds from the terminal points for various roadways, shipping and rail lines from the length of San Francisco to Orcas Island, and randomly superimposed them to produce a continuously transforming environment. As component elements progressively enter and leave, the composite landscape and soundscape grow with determined, almost organic, complexity.

David Kwan, Terminus, Installation view

In SOLARIS, Kwan used radio waves to generate patterns and shape the space they inhabit. Following the notion that sound waves propagated the earliest clustering of matter, he produces a wealth of images from the electromagnetic signature of present-day sound phenomena.