My videos pull together much of my thinking about art from the past twenty years – issues about how we consume landscape, how we experience place, how we navigate places, how we capture it through creative processes. I am not turning my back on the camera because of the grandiosity or awe for what I see, but to avoid the gaze of the 360 degree camera. The lens is all seeing, all-knowing. The video sequences are all done close to home, over a one year period, in places I know well.
Many have gone before me with these thoughts, but none, to my knowledge, have attempted to come to terms with the overwhelming gaze of the 360 camera in this way. When I first started to use it, I either featured as the centre of the imagery, or I hid out of sight. I have found a way to engage with it in a way that makes reference to other landscape traditions.
I walk, and draw, with my body.
I am doffing my cap to Caspar David Friedrich. "Walking in Circles, Forever" was created in response to the tradition of the male sole figure, often seen standing in the landscape, or striding across it with the intention of leaving lines on the ground.I have no desire to control or conquer nature, I am part of it, we are equal. I carefully frame the distance between the camera and the features of the landscape. No rigid, masculine straight lines, more of a female meander, a meditative action. These are self-portraits, – me, in my place.
A similar version has been shown in various film festivals.