Premiered at Bristol University, Wickham Theatre Monday 22nd September 2008
PORTRAITS OF THE TOR
The first of a series of studies of living communities
See Excerpt
A natural feature that sits unchanging throughout the seasons is Glastonbury Tor. I once shot this for the end of a programme on the History of British Painting and I was asked to evoke a painting by Turner. To quote Andrew Graham-Dixon in the same programme: To Turner, form exists to give reality to light - it's light that is real, form that's the inessential, the transitory, the insubstantial.... At the moment of shooting, I realised that something as substantial as Glastonbury Tor has a virtual presence in light and that I shall have to use the highest possible resolution to explore the challenge of representing that form in light. In the foreground of the projection will be the life size image of various notable people from around Glastonbury and its environs: Hubert Watkins, 85 on his tractor with his daughter (65) in gum boots standing nearby; The Egg Man with his long Edwardian sideburns, long brown coat, hat and Morris Minor van, Ray Loxton the local gravedigger, Mike Tamblyn, coalman and carnival float maker…. I asked each to stand for 1 minute with the instruction that they should be still in themselves and show us who they are in some way - my reason for doing so was to refer to late nineteenth century photographic techniques. A second reference is 18th century portraiture where the location, objects held or clothes worn tell us something of the society and culture of the time. This work is in the tradition of photographic portraiture lead by people like Edward S Curtiss, Walker Evans, Arbus, and even Robert Maplethorpe - the reason I'm doing this work is to try to unveil the relationship between depth of resolution and time.
This work was shot at 25 fps and recorded at 4k resolution and projected at 2k resolution.
Equipment requirements for display, 1 x 2k Plasma display or 1 x 2k projector, (can be 720p) plus 1 x Mac computer. Audio: Stereo system
Display: 16 feet by 9 feet screen, suspended off the floor in a dark space
Shot in Somerset July 2008
The Rural Life Museum Glastonbury Rural Life Museum, 16th September - 21st September,
Tuesdays to Friday and Bank Holiday Mondays 10.00am to 5.00pm Saturday and Sunday 2.00pm to 6.00pm
High Definition (blog)00AHRC Creative Fellowship in High Definition Imaging00In Other People's Skins
The Verbatim History of High Definition Aesthetics and Technologies 0 AHRC Creative Fellowship in High Definition Imaging
Forthcoming Projects 00The Making of In Other People's Skins 0 Audience Comments on the installation