Blue.Hour explores the contrasting colours created in the landscape during ‘l’heure bleue’; the period of twilight each evening when there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. Directly following the ‘golden hour’, known for its diffused yet powerful light, the ‘blue hour’ retains the diffusion, but lacks the strong light source – giving this period of the day an especially melancholic and meditative atmosphere.

As is characteristic of Novak’s signature style, Blue.Hour is made up of an arresting horizon that recalls the work of Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, who photographs seascapes with as much reverence as Novak wishes to cultivate for his own uninhibited landscapes. What initially appears as an animation, registers as a subtler evolution of atmospheres. It is at the cusp of such anatomical changes that Novak turns his attention to the variables of sound, in order to create an impressive audio induced narrative that carries the work into its limitless afterlife. As the image deviates little, so the audio rises like a spacecraft intent on breaking free of the earth.

Blue Hour is an abridged version of a large multichannel audio-visual installation, and is based on photographs and sound recordings collected at Joshua Tree National Park in June 2010.