Waterloo Sunset

I positioned the camera next to a set of traffic lights, under a bridge in Waterloo. The idea was that motorists drive into the shot and become confronted by the presence of the camera/camera operative as they are trapped/jammed in the frame while waiting for the green light. The intention was to promote an enhanced awareness of the immediate that is a shared experience between myself and my subjects. The presentation of this work is then an effort to represent this meditative experience and extend it into piece of work that considers the act of watching and the ephemeral nature of video images in relation to the spaces/moments that they fill. The title refers to the time and location in the which the filming took place, the significance of which lies in the notion of transition and halfway points. Below is footage of an installation as part of the Feedback show at House Gallery based on this idea. I do not feel this was the best way to present this work finally, though it was a useful learning experience and made me think in new ways about what might be a better way to present this project. The idea behind the presentation at House gallery, was that I would position different motorists on different screens, one in front of the other. I think the main thing I was thinking about here; were the containers and barriers, that separate people from each other, how people can coexist in a close proximity without interacting, and often without even realizing each other’s presence, in some ways the only thing that connects people is their proximity or maybe the idea of the other as a witness. (which is where this piece starts to evovle out of my own production processes, into a potentially interesting public spectacle) I think this is o.k as a concept, but not ultimately what I was trying to explore with this work. Though I still believe that if; I were to extend the House Gallery model in a larger scale piece with maybe 10 or 20 screens extending down a long space, this could be a strong galley installation. (something I may still do!) However there is something else I am trying to touch upon with this work, which I feel is lost or at best taking second place, that being; the idea of a suspended moment, the idea of a mundane situations taking on iconic significance by their being jammed in to a frozen present, that deregulates conscious experience. (my blog entry on Martin Arnold perhaps expands this perspective quite well) So I feel the way I could pursue this idea within the presentation of this piece would be by, perhaps repeating the same situation and interrogating it, so rather than focusing on multiple captured moments and trying to re-create the order of the those separate moments, (as with the House installation which features several people on different screens) I could focus on one moment and repeat it and interrogate it to such an extend that it breaks apart and reforms and becomes expanded and in flux, while constant and eternal at the same time. I think repeating the same image, or maybe a large screen/projector that dominates and demands reverence, would be a better tactic. Here are some stills from two of the video sources.