Great Lake / Small City II (2016-17) - 4'13"
My 2016-17 video and still photographic work, Great Lake/Small City II, marks a return to and reworking of an earlier version of this work. The first version was presented at Toronto’s Harbourfront Gallery in 2002 as a 50 x 60 inch colour photograph of the city of Toronto as seen from the opposite shore of Lake Ontario, near St. Catharines, Ontario, a distance of approximately 50 kilometres. To produce that version a view camera was used and the sharp but miniscule skyline of the city appears in the print to float on the horizon.
This image of Toronto as a tiny visual element situated precariously between an expansive sky and a vast body of water continued to fascinate Ingelevics and, eventually, he discovered a high point of land to the north of the city that happened to be almost exactly the same distance from the city as the original south shore vantage point. Over a period of two years he regularly returned to both the north and south viewpoints, taking digital still photographs and HD video using the CN Tower as a registration device. In transitioning still images of the city from 50 kilometres to the north to video footage of the city from across the lake a striking metaphor was produced as the countryside and suburbs around the city slowly appear to sink under water.