Loss of Gravity
ArtSway 2002
after Emmanuel Cooper
2002, DVD; 28 seconds
Addresses the role and responsibilities of the curator and the artist. A fixed view of a gallery, where an exhibition of ceramics has been partially laid out on plinths. The artist, his back to the camera and shoes squeaking, walks the length of the gallery, turns, and is seen to be carrying an evidently fragile bowl in his cupped hands. He turns again and pauses, facing back down the gallery, and launches the bowl into the air. The bowl floats gently down and settles on one of the plinths with a slight rattle. The artist walks back down the gallery.
Also shown inVaga Lume video festival, Instituto de Artes UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2003. Reverse-footage version first shown ArtSway April 2002.
after Fragonard
2002, DVD; 4 minutes
Addresses the apparent transferability of the language of the art essay and the universality of drawing. The artist at the wheel of a car: starts the engine; fastens the seatbelt; moves off; manoeuvres the vehicle back and forth around an indeterminate tree-lined area, all the while reciting texts which define or describe the act of drawing. When the recitation ends, he halts the car and switches off the engine.
Version with exterior view of car and superimposed drawing first shown ArtSway June 2002. Version dubbed with Portuguese voiceover of an alternative commentary shown in Vaga Lume video festival, Instituto de Artes UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2003.
after Michael Andrews
2002, DVD; 4 minutes
A reflection on the fluctuation of social fortune in the self-regarding world of art. In St Mark’s Square in Venice, as a group of curators engage in a relentless cycle of networking, earnestly circling each other and contributing to a deafening babble of party chat, their images by turn swell with confidence and vanity or diffidently shrink to nearly nothing.
Also shown in Vaga Lume video festival, Instituto de Artes UFRGS, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 2003.
after Patrick Caulfield
2002, computer-animated video; unlimited duration
A fixed view of a clear sky on a summer’s day. The sounds of holidaymakers and passing traffic. In the centre of the frame, a Union Jack flutters in a light breeze. Successive waves of seagulls fly high overhead. In each wave, groups of birds fly into letter formations. The choice of letters seems random, and if they spell recognisable words, the birds have dispersed and flown on before a sure reading is possible.
LAND
ArtSway Open 2002
2002, DVD; 4 minutes
A sequence of four, grainy TV clips shown in turn, alternating with split-screen presentation of all four. Each clip shows an object in flight, in the last second before it touches down, but gives way to the next part of the sequence at exactly the moment before the ground is reached. The objects are: a DeHavilland Comet; the foot of Eagle, the Apollo 11 Lunar Excursion Module; a gymnast; a Harrier Jumpjet.