Abstract
Two Screen Film Installation
Funded by the Arts Council of Wales
Premiered at ‘Diffusions’ Cardiff International Festival of Photography 1-31 May 2013. Also exhibited at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 11 May - 20 June.
B O R T H is a development of Koppel’s primary research interest that asks the question ‘how can audio visual observations both evoke and interrogate the relationships between a changing landscape and the evolving communities within it?’ In this sense it is the successor to Koppel’s previous feature-length film ‘sleep furiously’ (2007). The two films which form the installation are shot in Borth, a Welsh coastal village which has something of the Wild-West about it - a single road town stretching for just over one kilometer, with a bricolage of architectures lining both sides. On one screen the camera creeps slowly – an exaggerated walking pace - along the houses facing the sea…. The sense of walking is critical because B O R T H is evolved in part from a reading of Freud's essay 'On Transience', in which describes a summertime walk and asks a question why beauty should it loose its worth because of temporal limitations. Although the camera is moving, the quality of the gaze is fixed – Koppel’s direct reference to the work of the American structuralist filmmaker James Benning. On the other screen is the opposite view - a Sugimoto-esque seascape with an infinite horizon with ever-changing light and cloud patterns. This is a landscape which, as John Berger describes ‘has no focal point is like a silence. It constitutes simply a solitude that has turned its back on you’ (1986). The sound track for the installation is created from the interior sounds of the buildings we pass by... a tapestry of sounds of stillness, together with audio narratives of habitation. The technologies to produce B O R T H were ground breaking – it was shot ArriRaw on an Alexa, which for 55 minute single takes required two Codex recorders… a technique never used before and one which merited part sponsorship from both companies.
Funded by the Arts Council of Wales
Premiered at ‘Diffusions’ Cardiff International Festival of Photography 1-31 May 2013. Also exhibited at Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 11 May - 20 June.
B O R T H is a development of Koppel’s primary research interest that asks the question ‘how can audio visual observations both evoke and interrogate the relationships between a changing landscape and the evolving communities within it?’ In this sense it is the successor to Koppel’s previous feature-length film ‘sleep furiously’ (2007). The two films which form the installation are shot in Borth, a Welsh coastal village which has something of the Wild-West about it - a single road town stretching for just over one kilometer, with a bricolage of architectures lining both sides. On one screen the camera creeps slowly – an exaggerated walking pace - along the houses facing the sea…. The sense of walking is critical because B O R T H is evolved in part from a reading of Freud's essay 'On Transience', in which describes a summertime walk and asks a question why beauty should it loose its worth because of temporal limitations. Although the camera is moving, the quality of the gaze is fixed – Koppel’s direct reference to the work of the American structuralist filmmaker James Benning. On the other screen is the opposite view - a Sugimoto-esque seascape with an infinite horizon with ever-changing light and cloud patterns. This is a landscape which, as John Berger describes ‘has no focal point is like a silence. It constitutes simply a solitude that has turned its back on you’ (1986). The sound track for the installation is created from the interior sounds of the buildings we pass by... a tapestry of sounds of stillness, together with audio narratives of habitation. The technologies to produce B O R T H were ground breaking – it was shot ArriRaw on an Alexa, which for 55 minute single takes required two Codex recorders… a technique never used before and one which merited part sponsorship from both companies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Several public gallery spaces across Wales |
| Publisher | Cyngor Celfyddydau Cymru | Arts Council of Wales |
| Media of output | DVD & Physical Portfolio |
| Publication status | Published - 01 May 2013 |