LA Weekly

Building, a 12-minute graphics-based video by Belgian artist Anouk de Clercq, studies the play of bright white light moving across dark shapes within an architectural space. Like a stark, animated Cubist painting, the piece renders space while at the same time dematerializing it, creating rooms that shift into planes, which in turn become hallways, then stairs. It’s a masterful work, gracefully suggesting the virtual realm’s similar spatial ambiguity. In de Clercq’s grainier, more organic video titled Conductor, roiling clouds tumble past a white light posted atop a lightning rod. The images look entirely photographic, like silver nitrate in motion, the clouds grand and furious as they threaten the slim pole. Metaphors for the piece’s meaning abound, but it’s also just really pretty to look at. Earlier this month, de Clercq joined three other Belgian artists in presenting artwork to an audience at Telic Arts Exchange; the videos from that presentation remain on view, each suggesting different formal and thematic concerns, with the uniting element being a desire to cross disciplinary boundaries. While de Clercq cheerfully moves from graphic abstraction to more figural realism, Stephan Balleux maps rich, colorful paintings onto 3-D shapes, and Nick Ervinck challenges himself to make sculptures that are digital and digital images that are sculptural. De Clerq’s work stands out, but together the videos point to the productive influence of different art forms on moving-image media. (Telic, 975 Chung King Rd.; Fridays and Saturdays, noon–6 p.m.; thru Jan. 5. 213-344-6137 or www.telic.info)

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