Into the Light

from

The Wild Within

2025

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The Wild Within is a lens-based art series that breathes new life into historic and abandoned architecture through a fusion of photography, digitally sculpted foliage, and animation.

 

By transforming real-world spaces into surreal, meditative, and moving environments, the works immerse viewers in a realm where past and future, nature and structure, physical and digital converge.

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'Into the Light' is a single-edition artwork from The Wild Within.

 

It depicts the Aziz Nikolaos Kilisesi (the Church of St. Nicholas) in Gelebeç, Turkey, built in 1821 on the foundations of an older church near the ancient city of Priene—a locale historically associated with Alexander the Great.

 

Originally serving the village’s Greek Orthodox community, the structure was repurposed as a mosque following the 1923 forced migration population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

 

Yet, its architecture, including a dome, bell tower, and interior decorative elements, remains largely unaltered.

 

Although the building is closed-off to the public and suffers from extensive damage, it stands as a fascinating testament to the region’s Byzantine, Greek Orthodox, and Ottoman influences.

 

Created by artists Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell, The Wild Within reflects their decade-long exploration of forsaken buildings imbued with distinctive historical, cultural, and architectural significance.

 

Their journeys, ranging from ancient temples and sanatoriums in the Caucasus Mountains to abandoned villas in the Middle East, involve adventurous travel to remote and seldom-seen locales.

 

Using photography and 3D scanning to capture each site’s interiors, they sculpt overgrown foliage, adjust lighting, and introduce subtle motion, transforming original images into seamlessly looping moving artworks.

 

An original score by Swedish composer Karl-David Larson enhances the immersive quality of these pieces, creating a surreal interplay between past and future, natural and manmade, physical and digital, and real and imaginary worlds.

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Many of the buildings depicted in The Wild Within have already been demolished or continue to deteriorate, reflecting the constantly shifting nature of architectural and cultural landscapes.

 

By re-wilding and animating these spaces, Koopmans and Wexell invite viewers to contemplate the passage of time, change, and tranquility, invoking themes from landscape painting and the interplay between human constructions and the natural world.

 

Presented as infinitely looping time-based media, the series suspends viewers in a temporal space that blurs boundaries between place and time.

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The Wild Within unites conceptual exploration, technological experimentation, and the allure of remote landscapes. It has been showcased internationally and acquired by prominent collectors, auction houses, and institutions, establishing itself as an increasingly significant presence in the realm of ultra-contemporary art.