FLUX | MELTDOWN …not a moment to spare.
Sandra Crisp LG: “I remember talking to you a while ago about your digital practice and use of 3d Studio Max software to create images and video. It would be really great if you could illuminate any aspect of this interesting process.”
FLUX | MELTDOWN …not a moment to spare
Angela Eames: “A silent infinivid work, wherein drawn line gives way to flickering form – flowing lava – forwards and backwards, growth and shrinkage, shifting shapes, lava-flow encircled, all are strangely familiar, but not… The viewer observes two separate circular images simultaneously. The images are distinctly different but interrelated – their substance having derived from the same initial raw footage. Though there might be a struggle to absorb binocular information there is a tendency for the viewer to identify moments of visual similarity and connectedness.
“Video provides for me a different kind of working space. As a drawer, I see a timeline as a continuously evolving timebased piece of paper. I can’t get behind it but I can to some extent see through it! Marks can come and go as with graphite and eraser but in this space-time, membranes or layers of visual information can unexpectedly reveal or obscure previous membranes. In FLUX | MELTDOWN, I utilise stock video as a provocation for alternative ways of seeing a world in crisis, through the transformative properties of the moving image. This not quite ‘readymade’, is part of a series of works collectively entitled TANDEM. They are intentionally removed from what we have come to expect from video, i.e. moving image that tells a story. They make no demand on the viewer with regard to watching in linear time, from start to finish, suggesting that there are other ways of viewing the world.
“Moving imagery available as download is acknowledged, as readymade, raw material for re-assembly, where craft and skill previously required in producing aesthetic footage is no longer a major consideration although in other works this is not the case. The advances in drone photography and videography have resulted in the public availability of high quality aerial footage of ordinarily, inaccessible parts of the planet, enabling me to utilise subject matter entirely appropriate to the content of my work. Through appropriation, and re-choreographing, this work takes on a new meaning and significance. Raw footage is either shot by myself or carefully selected from online resources and then subjected to masking, mirroring, cutting and editing, before a process of layering or compositing takes place. This requires the drawing-up of appropriate mesh/linear masks which track/trace visual data in the original footage. Final assembly takes place within the complexity of the layering in the timeline of Adobe Premiere. Conscious daytime activity (preparatory drawing, building visual meshes/stencils, experimental play, visual research, contextual research etc.) is maximised by using night-time to render output although this often means a fair amount of conscious/awake attention being paid to the rendering process throughout the night. Unlike many artists where good quality daylight might be needed for working – I work in the dark!
“Digital resources: Dell Precision 7810, Wacom Cintiq 21UX, Epson Perfection 3200 Scanner, Canon D50 SLR camera, LG G5 mobile phone camera, Windows 10 64bit OS, Autodesk 3D Studio Max, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro, VLC Media Player, Handbrake, Epson Stylus Pro 3800 archival printer, Eizo Flexiscan 27” square monitor, 5 Lacie External Hard Drives. Other resources: Drawing sensibility, Day and Night, Libraries – Book and DVD (I watch about 3 films per day), Chambers Dictionary, Online Thesaurus, Pencil and Paper, Calculator, Objects, Video/photo Footage, Personal Digital Archives.”
Angela Eames LG, 2021
Title: FLUX-MELTDOWN …not a moment to spare | Year: 2020 | Type: Digital Video – Infinivid/Tandem | Media Format: Video, H.264, PAL, 4K, 3840p x 2160p, mp4, colour | Duration: 5.30‘ loop | Dimension: variable |
Artist Website: www.angelaeames.com/tandem
Exhibitions
In the Dark III: Being There, The Crypt at St John’s, Sat 19 June – Sun 27 Jun
In Plain Sight, The London Group, Thelma Hulbert and her London Group Friends, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Elmfield House, Dowell Street, Devon EX14 1LX 14 Aug-2 Oct 2021
A Question of Process:
#2 James Faure Walker LG
#3 Ece Clarke LG
#4 Neil Weerdmeester LG
#5 Ade Adesina LG