I have been slowly building up to making a new film. It is a continuation of my, so far, reasonably secret space films which, although he doesn’t know it yet, are intended for Michael Cousin’s online project Outcasting. They use various pieces of electronic paraphernalia to create satellites space ships and debris flying through vasty nothingness. A friend, whose husband died recently leaving her with a garage full of oddments donated these objects to me and along with many other things they take up a large part of one wall of my studio. To make this particular film I filled a large glass cylinder with four litres of cooking oil and dropped a satellite made from a small bulb and a resistor into it. I had hoped that the satellite would drift gracefully away from the camera into the gloom. Unfortunately it plummeted gracelessly to the bottom of the tube where it bounced once. A repeat of the experiment with engine oil may be more efficacious. However the grounded space debris engulfed in tiny golden bubbles looks pleasing so I have decided to call it “Phantom”. My main worry now is how to deal with the oil, which sits in my tiny kitchen looking like an enormous urine sample.
