I’m someone who stands in a no-mans land between artist and filmmaker, applying either one to myself seems slightly fraudulent. I suppose I see like a filmmaker then produce like a video artist, whatever that means.
In spite of this confusion I managed to win a Creative Wales Award that offers me the financial freedom to research an idea over the course of a year. My chosen brief would be to invstigate the idea of Cinéma Contre-Vérité a point where I feel the ‘truth’ of documentary filmmaking can be subverted using the latest digital manipulation technologies to create something not in the least truthful.
My work to date has involved capturing individual moments using digital video. This is a long drawn out process and occurs over a number of months if not years. Eventually I start to create false narratives and links between these clips to create another altogether deceitful meaning. This meaning is often just created by the conjunction of two images side by side in a single screen format. But more recently I’ve begun to digitally manipulate the meaning within individual clips by introducing subtle elements or events that lie beyond the normal realms of experience.
Winning this award couldn’t be more timely, it offers me access to mentoring, equipment and finances to research these ideas using the kind of technology you could only afford if you were vastly more wealthy than most artists could ever dream of.
