Original art only transpires osce an artist has experimented with a medium so much, they have taken a medium past traditional bounds.

A recent photography and video installation at SAW Gallery featured two artists who have developed their own original styles in their respective mediums.

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Ramlochand uses the same layering of images to create a collage of dimensions in her photographs.

"Crawling Out Of Limbo" depicts projected and mirrored images of Ramlochand amongst a fake floral and African village setting. "In The Memory of My Mind" colorfully dressed Black Africans in a truck contrast

against stoic black and white shots of photography by Yousuf Karsh. In al! of Ramlochand's pictures, her use of vibrant colors evoke vivid memories of exotic unknown places.

Other photographs were elegantly simple. "Uncaged Within Boundaries" shows the image of a lioness projected over a hallway corner making an Ottawa apartment seem the animal's natural stalking ground.

"I was trying an environment that wasn't Africa or Canada," Ramlochand explained.

"I was trying to create my own environment" that was "borderless, color-blind and

egalitarian.

Many pictures feature the mirrored image of Ramlochand, making them truly her own worlds. "I've learned from travelling that if you spend long enough in any place it's yours."

Ramlochand spent 1990 in Africa visiting 17 countries. Her photographs from Africa of voodoo markets, wild animals and villagers simply document her travels. Crawling Out Of Limbo resulted from her missing Africa.

"I was homesick, so I watched my slides over and over again. After a while they were empty." Ramlochand began projecting her slides from Africa unto familiar objects in her apartment and then taking pictures of them. "Most of my shots were taken on pure instinct."

"These new pictures mean more to me now than my pictures of Africa because now I can interact with the pictures."

This was Ramlochand's first photography exhibit, although she has had sculpture and drawings shown in other galleries. The exhibit at SAW gave both artists an opportunity to discuss their different mediums. Now, Ramlochand says she wants to experiment with video.

"Before I was happy just to play with film and black and white photography," said Ramlochand. "But now it's not a matter of playing so much as it's what I want to say with it and I will use any medium that will let me say what I want."

The exhibit ends Sept. 16.