Solo Show Pictures 2010

Here are some pictures from my solo show - Mechanics of Seenary


Endless Lead Up ft Pearl & Deans - Asteroid Theme


Objectable Space with Dust Particles, Projection



The Picture House Series, 2009 - Ongoing



End Reels with Splicing Tape



Hawker Tray and Promo Material

Solo Show - Mechanics of Seenary 2010

Solo Exhibit - 25th October 2010

Well this week has been super busy! Only had a week to plan and organise my solo Mres exhibition! I needed to sort out the popcorn and candy floss as well as the drinks. Its all sorted no though, I will upload pictures after the event.

I did finally begin to realise what some of the pieces where about though, for example - My piece 'End Reel with Splicing Tape' was created to experiment with the notion of aesthetics within filmic media. Who decides what is beautiful? Isn't it meant to be in the eye of the beholder? Rather than focusing on the message I prefer to locate the medium within film or video footage. These canvases represent a window onto a filmic technological world unseen.

End Reel with Splicing Tape, 2010

'The Picture House Series', represents an ongoing piece of work that looks objectionably onto the world of projection environments, mainly in the cinematic arena. These photographic prints have received no technological editing of any sort, they are as seen on the day they were taken. This is my response to Dziga Vertov's notion of the 'kino-glaz', an objective cinematic eye.

The Picture House Series, 2009 - Ongoing

Videography

Here is a list of the films I've made from September 2009 till now...

Cining, 2009
After Lights, 2009
Lights, 2009
Rewind, 2010
Re-Rewind, 2010
Cine 1, 2010
Cine 2, 2010
Cine 3, 2010
Pola 1, 2010
Pola 2, 2010
Pola 3, 2010
Pola 4, 2010
Pola 5, 2010
Experiment1FIP, 2010
Experiment2FIP, 2010
Experiment3FIP, 2010
Experiment4FIP, 2010
Experiment5FIP, 2010
Experiment6FIP, 2010
Experiment7FIP, 2010
Film in Film, 2010
Mock Pro Projecting, 2010
1, 2 & 3 Pro Projecting 3rd Attempt, 2010
1st Film 4th Attempt, 2010
Film Leader, 2010

...

Polaroid Paintings

I created some A5 size paintings based on some out of date polaroid stock I had. Just turned the colours into black and grey shades.



Series Six, Watercolour on Canvas boards, 2010

New Films

Here are some experimental films from 2009 - 2010.



Numbered Leader, 2010






Still Moving, 2010

Gallery Photographs 2010

Here are some images that I took the other day while in the gallery.

Five Cinemas, 2009-2010, Digital Prints





3x3 Cine, Canvas Prints, 2009-2010

New Works

I've decided to revisit the original cine footage that I shot at the cinema, I've altered and fiddled with and managed to create effects that look like old cine footage (western films).

Cine 1

Cine 2

Cine 3

Ideas

Still thinking about new ideas but I have mainly been focused on my thesis.

Autopsy Of Cinema

The sense of grandeur is lost from moviegoers' minds,
the feeling of anticipation as the music starts,
the lights dim and curtains reveal the tort screen,
the sense of being the only person or one of the first few to view the film.
That unique sense of belonging that only cinemas achieve,
the comfy seating,
the plush carpet under foot
and the mountain of popcorn that tumbles from the tub as eager hands dive in.
The occasional solitary chuckle that escapes from the stranger sat next to you,
as straws slurp at the carbonated liquid inside the cups.
Gasps and ohhs echo around the room,
muffled by the luxurious soft furnishings that cling to walls,
dressed in yesteryear's grandeur that's cracked and flaked.
Recent modifications slowly eat away the elegant charm of memories past.
The cracked chipboard conceals the decor of our fore fathers,
lost in between wood chip paper that smothers everything in sight.
The screen goes blank and the lights come on,
sounds of footsteps and wrappers dance around the room,
ice cream tubs distributed it's on with the show.
The murmurs die down as attention is grasped once again.
Exit signs flicker in the restored darkness as people wonder back to their seats,
all is quiet as modern day warfare explodes upon the screen.
Reels are spinning through the 1950s machines back onto the take up reel,
to await there next showing.
The whirring and clicking reflects the distant heartbeat of the ticking grandfather clock,
another thirty minutes to go and then all will be calm,
the theatre empties with the stragglers watching the credits roll,
as exit doors swing shut the artificial lighting blinks into life,
as rows and rows of seats stare back,
waiting expectantly for there next guests to arrive.
The curtains swish closed again,
protecting the screen so its ready to shine again one day.

Gemma Mountain, 2009

Thesis Vs Practice

The two are meant to go hand in hand but over the past few months this line as become a solid brick wall, when writing and researching it has become hard to remain creative. My creative side as slipped, almost becoming none existent. This has worried me. The research is meant to help to formulate the practice and visa versa, yet it is only when the research is completed that the two can merge into one. However to undertake one without the other would result in an unbalanced set of ideas and thinking. It becomes a double edged knife, a tight rope balancing act to ensure that both sets of objectives work towards the end product.

I am coming to the end of my 1st draft now and I'm able to see that although it has been a struggle, the end results have success-ed in allowing the research to inform the practice and visa versa.

So now I am able to embrace my creative side once again.

Exhibition Layouts

A3 or A2 Canvas Prints, framed.




Metal laser cut outs/embossing panels, A0 or larger.

Into The Art World

"Many artists have and continue to experiment with the arrangement of the gallery space, often in relation to time, there is a thin boundary between real time and projection time". (Mountain, G 2010)

This is one of the themes within my thesis, the relationship between the projection setting and the viewed projection.

Experimental Images and Stills

Experimenting with basic 3D, 2009

A sketch of a super 8 camera, 2010



Altered still, 2010



Overlaying image, 2010

Reading List

Recently I have been looking into other areas of critical writing, I am starting to read Nothing by Graham Gussin and Ele Carpenter in relation to my work. The idea of emptiness within social environments interests me, the relationship between the busy and the empty or places that are empty that are usually filled with people and/or objects. I am looking at this not from the aspect of people but from the mediums that are displayed within these areas. In the case of cinemas, I am interested in the filmic medium within the architecture of cinema and picture houses. The gallery environment, when photographed empty makes one focus on the space, but what does the empty projection reel, projecting into this empty blank space have to say about the relationship between cinema and the gallery? Within my research I'm hoping to unravel this query while finding other routes to navigate to.

Moving Forward

I'm continuing the research to explore the notions of cinema within a gallery environment, moving my practice further into this arena of inquiry. The next stage of my research involves experimenting within gallery environments, looking at the empty spaces that is created when there are show change overs. At the same time as this I will continue to explore the technical and mechanical interests I have with cinematic equipment, experimenting with the use of a super 8 projector. Exploring the relationship between direct authorship and the differences of stepping back within my practice.

To do this I will use a super 8 projector that will be projecting one of my experimental films while I film using modern technology, a physical step back away from the technology, allowing for objectivity within the work.

Photofunia.com

Recently I have been experimenting with mock ups of possible billboard prints by using an online software by http://photofunia.com.

Experiments

Rewind, 2010

Just a quick update...

I have been researching the concept 'the medium is the message' recently as well as experimenting with some of the super 8 footage I captured in a cinema.


End Reel, 2009/10

Hopefully these images are going to be printed large scale, possibility even billboard size, as I want the viewer to feel oppressed and uncomfortable with the scale of technology, within society as well as art.


After Lights, 2010, film still

An example of the current themes and ideas I have been using within my practice.

Further Direction

Cinema is dead?

Exploring articles written by Peter Greenaway of the issue of cinemas demise. Relating these to literary theorists such as Roland Barthes and Jonathan Culler on Deconstruction theory. Within all of this is the notion of authorship, Micheal Foucault (1969) explores this in his essay What is an Author?.

Authorship is entwined within my practice as, as an artist it is easy to sub contract certain aspects of the work to 3rd parties, in essence allowing for outsider input to occur. This is where Barthes relates as his essay The Death of the Author is relevant to this argument. Exploring this within my research and practice will allow for a clearer view and understanding of the subject(s) that I'm researching.

Introduction

My interest within the cinema and gallery relationship stems from my own artistic practice which surrounds the subject of film and video technologies and how they are exhibited within a contemporary Gallery space. The use of technologies both old/defunct and new/modern takes various forms within my practice these include lens based media as well as creating technological sculptures focused around the notions of the media/medium itself.

In particular my practice focuses on the link between the projections within cinematic environments and the gallery projections, looking at it from an objective stand point. Surrounding my masters research as well as the aforementioned projections, I look behind the scenes of cinema and projection equipment onto the mechanical process and structures they form. If anything the content becomes irrelevant, it becomes a Structuralist view of the medium recording itself.

Having said this I've also explored the more artistic notions of editing the content captured through photographic work or super 8 film recording. Even here the theory of Structuralism becomes involved as even though the two processes in which I work are separate, implying separate processes, Structuralism ensures that everything is connected.

When applying projections/installations into the formula the research becomes Post-Structuralist as the art works are cut apart, separated from the meaning and projected into an unbiased space. Post-Structuralist theory suggests that symbols are cut radically adrift from material reality, as Colin Perry states; "it seems tailor-made for cinema".

The processes I've explored within my practice and research reflect a sense of technology, choosing to use defunct recording equipment to create a link between the past and the present without straying towards nostalgia. My objective position allows me to immerse myself in the genre/theme without having the pressure of passing judgment upon the objects and themes I apply.

All in all my practice and research involves the medium not the content it creates.