To Fall Standing, 1993
Artspace, Sydney, October 1993. Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland, 1994
To Fall Standing features a video-gun and stop-motion photographs in an interactive installation reminiscent of the shooting gallery at the carnival. A tiny video surveillance camera has been fitted into the barrel of an 1880’s shotgun in conscious reference to the photographic machine gun designed by renowned French physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey in 1882 to capture the sequential movement of bird’s wings in flight.
Considered to be one of the earliest cinematic devices, Marey’s photo-gun (converted from a Colt revolving rifle) could be seen as the first in a lineage to the gulf War ‘slam-cam’ or missile born camera.
The relationship between guns and the cinematic is made explicit as the viewer is invited to point-and-shoot, simultaneously effecting the strobed, sight-line image which appears on a bank of eight monitors (video effect designed in collaboration with Steven Jones).
(Images):
Installation image: To Fall Standing, 1993. Shotgun, video camera, photographs, 8 video monitors, Fairlight computer. A video-gun and stop-motion photographs in an interactive installation that references the photographic machine gun designed by renowned French physiologist Etienne-Jules Marey in 1882.
To Fall Standing, 1993. Screen views of image gathering that occurs on the 8 video monitors.