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
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
