I’ve been reading a lot about Michael Snow recently and the effect his experimental videos had on cinema. I’ve been reading about him because this weekend myself and James are going to the LUFF film festival in Switzerland and Snow is a guest speaker and they are showing many of his seminal films. James has been selected as one of the finalists in the experimental shorts competition (good luck with that James!).
Nevertheless all this immersion into Michael Snow is having an effect on my work (although I’m still learning) and I spent a day last week filming in the cinema.
They do have some screenings on at the weekend but usually the cinema is quiet during the week. However as part of the educational workshops that the mill provides for primary school kids they sometimes show some Sennett comedies, including the Keystone Cops and these had me mesmerised. They have a small 10 minute show reel of fast edited segments of action slap-stick and the timing of the stunts particularly using real trains was just fantastic. It’s unbelievable what these actors did nearly 100 years ago for the sake of comedy and how creative and inventive they were. There were also some films showing home movies taken in and around Leeds about 60 years ago. As they were silent and lacked a logical narrative this, for me, only emphasised their seductive visual quality.
I spent a while filming inside the cinema trying to emphasise the space between the viewer and the screen , making the spectator aware that there’s a (passive?) relationship when watching moving images. I also spent time filming a certain section of the film and rewinding it and playing it again, I aim to edit this where it loops over and over without any respite. It seems to be quite a common theme for me as I’ve produced work before which could be linked to Nietzsche’s Eternal Return, where the work is locked in the same and repeats over and over again. Or maybe it’s just my OCD!
I also did some drawing on the window in the MillSpace. I’ve positioned my desk right near the window and I’ve spent a bit of time gazing out there, looking at the river and waiting for the Kingfishers that are supposed to be about (not yet seen them!).
I positioned myself in one view point and softened my gaze and just drew the lines of the mill and the water onto the window with a black marker pen. This method isn’t used for a reproductive lifelike drawing and the lines aren’t drawn in the ‘right’ position. It’s the act of softening your eyes and trusting what you draw. It’s also quite meditative. These drawings play with perception and it also question the act of looking and our trust in what we see as being truly representative.
