THICKET 2008
DVD
projection, 9 min 48 sec loop, silent, black and white, projected at the Royal
West of England Academy for ‘Night: A Time Between’ April – May 2008
Using a high
contrast DLP projector, Thicket was
projected on to a black screen 5 metres wide by 3.75 metres high that filled
one end of a large, totally blacked out room. Viewers were completely disorientated on entering the space
and had to wait for their eyes to adjust before they could see the projection
completely; even then it was hard to locate the surface of the screen.
The work
explores the edges of vision, the nature of movement and the act of engagement
with the screen. Pushing the
relationship between the camera and the source of light, the ‘drawn’ or ‘sculpted’
image moves from a position of distance to one of proximity, revealing tensions
between object and field. The
physical nature of seeing is revealed by the creation of afterimages on the
back of the eye – is this network of light outside or inside the body of the
viewer?
‘The Hawthorn in ancient
mythology is said to have been created by lightning. Having strong associations with death, the sacred and the
afterlife, it also used to be regarded as an entrance to ‘the otherworld’ of
the fairies. This piece grew out of the experience of living on the edge
of Dartmoor in winter, a time of year when night dominates the day, and the
low, raking light of the sun reveals the archaeology of the moor with
unexpected clarity; you see forgotten memories in the landscape, the skeleton
beneath the surface of the skin. ’
Tabatha
Andrews 2008