| This is the third in a series of six-projector gallery installations
shot between 1976 and 1986. Each piece of work requires an identical
situation in terms of equipment and space. All three pieces explore
the relationship between the gallery space and the perspective of
the landscape. Shoreline deals with the horizon line between sea
and sky, Shoreline II with the line of breakers between land and
sea, and Sky Light with the perspective of a stormy sky.
All three installations establish a different relationship between
chance-like elements, such as wave and cloud motion, and mechanically
predictable elements, such as shooting and projection speed.
Sky Light introduces a large element of chance into the process
of recording the imagery. By frequently starting and stopping
the camera, a large number of flash frames were produced. The
result is a six projector flicker film which not only represents
a stormy cloudscape but also represents the rotation of the camera
shutter and the process of recording itself. The flash frames
work in opposition to the projected image of cloud and blue sky,
illuminating the two dimensional surface of the gallery wall in
staccato rhythm, which varies continuously as the projectors drift
in and out of sync.
Sky Light emphasises the potential violence and beauty of mechanistic
structures and procedures, and combines this with the potential
violence and beauty of natural phenomena. The footage was shot
during the week following the Chernobyl explosion, when the sky
carried messages for everyone.
Acknowledgements:
Made with assistance from the Arts Council of Great Britain.
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