Glow Cinema
The Films of Maria Constanza Ferreira
These short films explore synthetic crystals, the vibrancy of light in cityscapes, and surprising visual landscapes.
Hillocks (2022, 4 min.) is an experimental animation featuring the enigmatic bodies of crystals grown from a solution of water, salt-based chemicals, and dyes. These crystals contain fascinating 3D dye patterns that seemingly materialize out of nowhere by a remarkable, self-generative process.
Lattice (2017, 3 min.) explores the iridescent waves, geometrical gardens, and spiraling sand dunes found in the landscapes of a crystal’s microscopic structure.
Energy is reflected, refracted, and abstracted in Righteous Energy (2019, 4 min.). Ferreira combined in-camera special effects and computer animation techniques to visualize the vibrancy of light in cityscapes.
Thousands of images from Google Earth/Street View and the United States Geological Survey Database have been digitally manipulated into transportive and surprising visual landscapes in VIA (2018, 6 min.).
About the Artist
Maria Constanza Ferreira’s practice incorporates experimental film, installation, photography, fine art, and digital media. She explores images, objects, and materials that are disconnected from everyday life, or that are so prevalent they become unseen. Maria plays with the integration of light, movement, time, sound, and space to construct unfamiliar modes of representation by deliberately blurring the line between the physical and the abstract. Her work has been showcased internationally and she’s won numerous awards.