- Venue
- Picture This
- Location
- South West England
Slow Action
I was pleased to have the opportunity to attend the preview of Ben Rivers’ presentation ‘Slow Action’ at Picture This in Bristol http://www.picture-this.org.uk/home.
On entering the exhibition space, I was surrounded by a multi-screen audio-visual presentation, which initially appeared to be an eclectic mix of unrelated sequences. The space was dark and intimate, giving the impression that the room was already sufficiently full; however, as my eyes became accustomed to the dark the space began to grow, as did the content of the show, building into a cohesive whole that was actually ‘greater than the sum’.
In the centre of the room was a padded bench, for viewers to sit on if they wished, and on all four sides, equidistant from the walls, were freely suspended back-projection screens each showing a different sequence of the show. The soundtrack was a combination of spoken narrative and enigmatic background music which added equally to the experience. I wanted to stand in a gap between the screens in order to take in as much as possible simultaneously.
The original footage was shot on 16mm film, in both colour and black & white, and digitally projected in cinemascope format. The mix of colour and high contrast black & white sequences added a rich blend of documentary and photographic quality.
Segments of the films were shot in various locations around the world, and conjured up several memories and recent events. Tiny Pacific islands made me think of hurricane Katrina. An island near Nagasaki resembled Alcatraz, but equally brought to mind the film on Anselm Keifer by Sophie Fiennes – ‘Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow’.
The whole show is on a loop, so that if you sat on the bench it would gradually rotate round you to the next screen at the end of each sequence. I understand it may be shown on one single screen by the time it gets to Matt’s Gallery, which I feel would be a shame. I’m sure it would lose quite a bit of the viewer’s experience in that format.
