Ryn Wilson is a photography and video artist currently living and working in New Orleans. She grew up in the Mid West and received her BFA from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. She spent time studying in Thailand, China and Germany and worked as a photographer and artist’s assistant in Tokyo and Shanghai. She has exhibited in Tokyo, Shanghai, Hamburg, San Francisco, Austin, Milwaukee and New Orleans. Ryn is currently working towards her MFA at the University of New Orleans.
Her recent work explores themes related to the history of film and how it affects our identity as a culture as well as our memories as individuals. Through a reevaluation of cinematic tropes, Ryn has created a series of fictional film stills. These "stills" allude to genres and repetitive imagery within the world of film without referring to any specific movie. Her fictional movie posters are created with the same approach.
Her latest video “Parallel Realms”, explores the experience of mentally projecting oneself into a movie while watching it. Relating to characters on screen influences one’s personality as well as confuses real memories with what has been watched. Ryn physically puts herself into this position by projecting scenes from movies and inserting herself as a character into the story. She exists as both a fanatic who wants to be a part of this fictitious world, and a critic making a comment on the absurdity of the charismatic influence film has over its viewers. In this dichotomy she plays both the voyeur and the exhibitionist. The sound is a collection of dramatic tracks taken from movies to emphasize cinema’s ability to manipulate viewers’ emotions. The soundtrack runs twice as long as the picture, illustrating the influence sound has over perception.