16mm Film Projectors 16/10/2009
 I went to the Frieze Art Fair yesterday, and was astonished to find that the majority of artists working with moving images today were using 16mm films. Wandering down the aisles, I was systematically drawn into a gallery’s booth by the sound of old projectors. However, the most surprising were the multitude of different kinds of old projectors that were used to exhibit the works. I found myself looking at all the different ways the projectors were being used. While some used the standard two reels, other projectors had the films twisted and turned in some very intricate mechanism before its passage in front of the lens. As the photo above shows, the work of the artist Alexandra Leykauf uses the latter, single-reel projector where the film is wound around a series of rollers on a horizontal platter. Her work is entitled ‘Installation view (Kunstverein Nürnberg)’, and is exhibited by Sassa Trülzsch gallery. Rather than being hidden, the way the three projectors were placed in the very small space allocated to the gallery meant that the projectors were the centre of attention. The projectors, with their wonderful clickety sound, have become an object just as important to artists, as what the medium itself is projecting. The old projectors are part of the works of art themselves. Artists exhibited by the galleries in the fair have a taste for old objects that link back to the history of film. While some used the now very old 16mm films, one artist piled up miniature towers of VHS tapes, and another artist had a pile of VCRs. The Frieze Art Fair is on all this weekend, 15-19 October 2009, at Regent’s Park: http://www.friezeartfair.com/ -Sheena Scott CommentsDaniella Saul 16/10/2009 22:05
There's a very interesting article in ArtMonthly July-August 09 called "Reel to Real" by Colin Perry which tries to assess the reasons for the return to the use of film in Contemporary artistic practice. It talks about the material presence of film but also about the idea of film as a performative arena, and what it means as a space in which to say something powerful when we live in a time in which everyone can talk through so many different mediums. Philip A Leatherdale 14/10/2011 22:08
I agree with a recent statement made regarding the many different mediums,DVD VHS HD iP,including the Different data on Hard drive storage Systems etc ,that seems to be constantly changing! It was nice to see a young artistic person sustaining,and currently using as an art form, the well established 16MM celluloid Film medium. Leave a Reply |
