This, and This

“Vincent Grenier is an artist whose shift to digital filmmaking has consistently been characterized by a rigorous investigation of the specific aesthetics and formal parameters of his adopted medium. ‘This, and This’ is no exception. Thematically, Grenier’s piece is a conversation with nature in both its raw and culturally mediated forms – for example, the rushing waters from Ithaca Falls juxtaposed with the spray of a rain puddle traversed by a steel belted radial. The piece is in many ways a meditation on the power of the straight cut, as opposed to the fades and image-alternations one often finds in recent video work. As the video progresses, Grenier implies that non-mediation doesn’t exist. But on an even more basic level, ‘This, and This’ pits vertical against horizontal movement, as well as pushing digital video to the limits of its comfort zones, as swirling forms begin to pixilate or produce visual feedback.” – Michael Sichinski