Reeves approaches the issues of life and death through a meditation on light and dark, a minute observation of movement and stillness. The force of life and the inevitability of change, even violent change and decay, emerge from Reeves’s glittering collage of slow-motion, natural images. A glass shattering on a table and a statue of Buddha falling into swirling water suggest the Buddhist doctrine of the impermanence of life, that it cannot be contained but is forever moving on.
Dan Reeves has worked in sculpture, film, video, and installation since 1970. His videos focus on personal, political, and spiritual themes, from socially condoned violence to the divine nature of existence. Since 1982 Reeves's work has concentrated on developing a video poetics and exploring personal transformation and responsibility. Reeves’s Buddhist convictions shape not only his content, but direct his commitment to “revitalizing the sacred in art"—making work of universal significance and understanding of the human condition. A remarkable combination of traditional documentary and personnal narrative, his autobiographical tape Smothering Dreams deals with the myths and realities of war through his experience in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive.