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C100
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Susan
MacWilliam: Mountain Mist, 2002, DVD, 7 mins
30 secs, colour, stereo; footage: Maraval Mountains,
Trinidad, courtesy Butler Gallery
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Kilkenny:
Susan MacWilliam at the Butler Gallery
A
static image of a lush, tropical forest radiates with vibrant
colour, a haze of thick steam obscuring the landscape. The flicker
of a strobe reveals itself as a detail of a rotating fan. Lightning
flashes over a still reach of buildings, as thunder brews in
the background.
The projected video images of Susan MacWilliam in her exhibition
of new work can't help but catch the eye. The question is whether
these striking visuals carry any impact beyond the immediate sensory
impression, or fade away once the viewer moves onto the next piece.
Mountain Mist (all films 2002) is the most satisfying of
these works, a steady shot overlooking a forest region of Trinidad.
The scene appears tranquil until you notice the rapid momentum
of the distant birds, zooming back and forth, a sudden bust of
humid vapour overwhelming the image, the stutter of a brief rainstorm.
Time-lapse condenses and repeats select segments of the film,
as the idyllic tableau momentarily becomes a tropical Turner,
a Rothko. Even with a soundtrack of torrential rain and bird calls,
the experience remains inherently visual, never really transporting
the viewer away from the gallery.
The same can be said of Lightning Storm, a montage of cityscapes,
the skyline illuminated by bolts of electricity. The presence
of natural phenomena tie these two works together, but this film
is particularly underwhelming. The shifting perspective throws
the viewer's focus, as the piece sits uneasily between documentation
and the aesthetic. As in James Coleman's or James Benning's work,
there is a suggestion of afterimage, the neurological trace of
a previous scene, as the sequences subtly merge from one into
another, yet there seems to be so little to recall. Neither especially
spectacular not thoughtful, these flickers of lightning remain
with the viewer about as long as they last on screen.
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Top: Susan MacWilliam: Fan, 2002,
DVD, 4 mins 43 secs (looped), colour, stereo; footage,
Trinidad;
Bottom:
Susan MacWilliam: Lightning Storm, 2002, DVD,
6 mins 15 secs, colour, stereo; footage: Sunnyside,
Queens, New York; courtesy Butler Gallery
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Fan
offers even less. Essentially an exercise in camera-effects, multiple
shots of a revolving fan create a pulsing strobe out of the most
mundane surroundings. Why MacWilliam found it necessary to travel
to Trinidad to find a fan is beyond me, but I'd gladly overlook
it if the content wasn't so thin. The camera and the eye naturally
linger on the active, but this scopophiliac pleasure works because
it gives us so little contemplate. Isolated from any narrative
or conceptual subtext, the movement of a fan offers nothing more
than visual distraction. I reckon I get enough of that from television.
The preoccupation with surface is confirmed in the Stereoscopic
Images (2002); illuminated, three-dimensional photographs
observed through lenses set into the gallery wall. These images
of street and business signs stand out, not only in space but
through their intense, primary colours. There is a sense of visual
attraction, particularly through the interaction of viewer and
viewfinder. The realisation of the spectator's role as an active
participant is heightened in this intimate arrangement. By layering
flat photographic images to create depth, the viewer becomes aware
of their own position, the configuration of left and right perspectives
implicit in the optical process. It takes a still photograph to
emphasize this. Perhaps hectic, flickering images have become
too commonplace, too familiar, to make any real impact on an audience
anymore.
Chris
Clarke is a Canadian artist and writer based in Cork.
Susan MacWilliam: On the Eye, Butler Gallery, April/May
2002
Article
reproduced from CIRCA 100, Summer
2002, pp. 75-76.
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