Falling
The series was inspired by ideas about temporality; specifically, how a moment of reverie is altered through recollection. As a child, I collected sycamore seeds, threw them into the air and watched with fascination at them spinning down to the ground. There was also a little envy at the ability of these entities to be air-borne, using gravity to their advantage. I saw the seeds attached by stalks to tree branches above, strewn on the ground or sometimes caught them twirling down in front of me. However, I never experienced looking directly upwards to see seeds spiralling towards me, brushing past my face. I wanted to construct this experience as a new opportunity for reverie, to be able to enter an imaginary space where an event unfolds over time and through space specifically for a viewer.
The sycamore tree, Acer pseudoplatanus, is not native to the British Isles and as an exotic species, has a particular resonance for me. It is fast growing, tolerant of most soils and successfully colonises open land. The sycamore creates controversy as some see it as a good pioneer species for re-establishing woodlands and useful in timber production, while others see it as a pest threatening to overwhelm ancient, native woodlands.
Each of the Falling photographs was taken with a large-format camera pointing skywards and the final images cropped to a square to remove any notion of a top, bottom or dominant side. All orientations are ‘correct’ when viewing the images.
The Falling video animation is 13 minutes long with the visual content repeated twice during this time. Two subtly different versions of a music score created by composer Miguel d’Oliveira accompany the visuals. The second version includes woodwind instruments, such as a bassoon and clarinet, absent from the first.
Falling plays with the notion of ‘natural’ occurrences; the divide between what is artificial or natural is elusive to grasp as events constantly shift between being plausible or implausible. The title is a literal description of what is happening and also offers other interpretations. As an active term the word implies a transition from one state to another. However, it is also a liminal condition, full of potential. ‘Falling’ too, alludes to a loss of control. While fantasy can be pleasurable in the moment it can simultaneously induce anxiety about its eventual finality. The awkwardly titled photograph Landed (a counterpoint to the lyricalness of the other photographs’ titling), acts as a punctuation mark, a full stop, to the series. The reverie is brought to an abrupt end with a return to reality.
Medium:
Lightjet prints face mounted with Plexiglas.
Falling video animation. Run time of 7 minutes (2 versions).
Dimensions:
Large 48 x 48 inches
Small 30 x 30 inches
Edition Sizes:
Large 7
Small 7