Vortex Experiment #4: The Grey Whirlpool (2019–2025)
Vortex Experiment #4: The Grey Whirlpool is part of an ongoing series of videographic investigations examining the visual and symbolic properties of vortex formations in flowing water.
The central motif, the whirlpool, draws on ancient, cross-cultural cosmological narratives that imagined celestial bodies rotating around a central axis or the Earth. Often symbolized as a cosmic mill or maelstrom, the whirlpool has long been associated with portals to the afterlife. In many mythologies, the whirlpool marks the threshold to the realm of the dead, located “at the end of the sky.” In Mesopotamian cosmology, for example, the term mulNUNki (written in cuneiform) refers to Canopus, Alpha Carinae, the bright southern star said to signify such a whirlpool.
In cosmographical literature, the maelstrom is often described as having three roots, one in the heavens, one in the earth, and one in the watery depths, linked together by an axis mundi, or world axis. This symbolic axis represents the universe’s central pivot in various mythologies. Often, a sacred tree, such as the Tree of Life or Yggdrasil in Norse mythology, grows beside or upon the whirlpool. The emergence of the vortex is frequently attributed to the disturbance of cosmic order: the felling of the tree or the dislodging of the mill’s axle.In Vortex Experiment #4: The Grey Whirlpool, these symbolic references are translated into an audiovisual artwork where a swirling visual motif is paired with an ambient soundscape. This interplay of image and sound invites a state of synchresis, heightening perceptual ambiguity and temporal dislocation. The result is a partial hypnotic effect that immerses the viewer in an experience of suspended time.