"Scientists and philosophers consider consciousness to be....‘woven into the fabric of the universe’..... existing all along in the fine scale structure of reality."
- Dr. Stewart Hameroff
Lev's artworks are constructed from hundreds of photographs that Lev takes in different parts of the globe and then digitally assembles into single pieces. To build his pieces he employs an in-depth Photoshop process that he fine-tuned through trial and error.
When Lev started to experiment with multiple exposures on 35mm film he discovered that each seemingly separate moment frozen in his camera is an intersection where the artist's conscious and subconscious worlds simultaneously converged. Taking it a step further, Lev started working in the digital format to create controlled multiple exposures on a single frame. As he fine-tuned his creative process by incorporating Photoshop, he observed that the viewer's experience can be altered by manipulating traditional points of reference with color, form and context.
Lev's multi-layered artworks dilate the viewer's perception of space-time geometry by creating a tension between the artwork's new state of consciousness and the observer. "The way words are created by rearranging individual letters, and then become sentences and paragraphs, and eventually turn into books, similarly, I use photographs, like letters of an alphabet, to create my artworks."
In order to preserve the continuity of each project's narrative, Lev works on all of the pieces at the same time. His process resembles a film director's in that he has to maintain the integrity of the preceding and upcoming scenes in relationship to the one he is working on in the moment.
“Joe Mover”, Lev’s first short film, won best short at the Appalachian Film Festival and led to a cash grant from The Doorpost Film Project. His second short film, “Ten: Thirty One”, won the best short prize at the Oldenburg Film Festival and took home the best actress award at the Ourense Independent Film Festival.
The success of “Ten: Thirty One”, the story itself, and the profound connection that audiences had with the character’s inner lives, inspired Lev to co-write the feature screenplay “Get Psycho.” The anticipated film will serve as Lev’s directorial feature film debut. Production starts in Spring 2020.