My work is concerned with investigating urban spaces and narratives. These investigations have taken the form of stop motion animations, video installations, sound installations and interventions made in urban landscapes. I explore both the idea of journeying and take on the role of the outside observer – the noticing and documenting eye in the midst of an anonymous bustle.
In the last nine years I have travelled extensively, both for pleasure and for residencies and workshops. On a recent residency in Paris at the Cité Internationale des Arts (from August – October 2008), I became particularly interested in the first steps of navigation one takes upon entering an unfamiliar environment. I observed a range of newcomers to Paris streets – the tourists, the West African immigrants, the gypsies. The newcomer’s experience is shaped by an anticipation of the city: its potential mystery, romance and fear.
Positioning oneself using maps, directions and public markers creates a sense of personal purpose and agency, making it possible to feel a certain connection with the environment. This engenders a feeling of solidity and assurance, and allows you to be inquisitive and aware of your presence in the space. This is a comforting, appealing sensation, giving a context and narrative to a circumstance. There is a pre-empted, imagined journey that takes place with a finger on a map, or in a narrative described by a stranger. I worked with this concept extensively during the residency, using maps, guidebooks and vocal directions as starting points for drawings, stop motion animations and sound installations.
In revisiting my work for this statement, I found that an observation of space and geography have been inherent goals of mine for some time, though not consciously recognised. These began to arise in 2006, on a short residency in Belgrade, Serbia. The piece that I made there reflected my initial exploration and awareness of the city – a stop motion animation showing a river of red cups filled with water winding through the cobbled city walk-ways. This work was related to Belgrade’s location at the confluence of two major eastern European rivers, and my interest in the use of water in the city. In making this work, I became acutely aware of my own transience in the space. The knowledge that my presence was momentary made the observation urgent and uncompromised.
Mirroring my conceptual focus, my work is also temporary and transitory in its physical form. Digital photographic, video and sound mediums are compelling to me because of the immediacy of their creation, and the time-based, ethereal qualities of their presentation. The presentation of a video or sound installation is always a transient event, often affective in its impermanence. Additionally, the tools of creation (digital video cameras; sound recorders; DSLR cameras) are well-suited to the city-space in their compactness, discreetness and transportability.
Recently I’ve begun to work with lightweight, communicative materials – radios and hidden speakers, as my intent moves towards creating physical form and context for this ethereal medium.
In a more abstract way, my work with sound installations has primarily been a means to map out a sense of a space or change a context. I have worked with sound both within a gallery environment and in public interventions. The sound has consisted mainly of field recordings of public spaces and voices - sounds that communicate with a listener and that are easily recognisable. I am interested in sound as a tool for immediate contact and familiarity while allowing for individual interpretation and association.