LANDSCAPE

This was an installation exploring the reframing of the body. Skin and hair became a landscape to travel across and explore. The focus was on the many intricate nuances of the intimate body rather than the silhouette or overall shape. This piece provided the audience with the opportunity to look at a persons’ figure as a piece of art in and of itself.

Landscape consisted of five large, deep screens suspended from the rig in the loose shape of a box. Anyone within the space could move through the gaps between the screens and experience Landscape from inside and/or outside. Before allowing the audience to enter, the room was filled with haze so that the beams of light emitted from the five projectors could be seen – filling the room with architectural light. The stretched-fabric plains of the screens had been soaked in clay and then rubbed to create a surprisingly soft texture for the audience to discover. The presence of the clay also meant that the footage shown from the inside of the box appeared dappled whereas that from the outside was completely clear.

Landscape existed as a durational installation event allowing the audience complete control over their personal experience of the piece. Audience members were free to enter and leave the space whenever they wished to. While within, they were invited to sit, stand or move around as they pleased. With a large horizontal screen just above head-height, many people chose to lie down and to experience the piece looking up within the central ‘box’.

After leaving the space, many audience members mentioned that their perception of time had been skewed – thinking that they were leaving after half an hour when in reality they had stayed within the installation for almost a full hour. The experience was described as womblike, calming and revitalising.