Dylan Valev — Ephemera Eternal
Reviewed by Leah Davis

Ephemera Eternal confused me. The nature of immersive art is to envelop and include its audience in the act of creation. Through this lens, artists and audiences must become co-conspirators. Of course, the vehicle of immersion can be used to create whatever type of relationship an artist wants.  I’m not against confrontational pieces that make viewers uncomfortable or anxious. I just want to feel like the audience has been asked to contribute something vital to the artist’s creative moment. And that’s where I got tripped up with Dylan Valev’s Ephemera Eternal. I couldn’t figure out where we were meant to fit! Still, Valev’s entry into Electronic Dimension makes an impact. White patterns spiral out from a central focal point in a warp-drive version of your granddad’s 1996 PC screensaver. Space compresses into a static flat disc despite the illusion of forced perspective. There’s no rest for the eye or the ear, gritty, bass-heavy sound undulates through the space. The room feels thick and oppressive. Shapes grow and shrink; my mind wants to translate this into depth but can’t quite make it happen. I’m uncomfortable so I close my eyes. When I open them, the shapes are different but not in any meaningful way. We are in a cycle. Or, as Valev puts it, we are stuck in “a black and white journey through the everlasting cycles of essence’s growth and decay.”