Venice: The Intimacy of Night.

The photographs are part of an ongoing exploration of the strange city of water that is Venice.

On a previous post (February 2011) I have shown sketchbook pages of my time in Venice. Drawings that depict architectural elements combined with graphical symbols & typography from my experience of the city. Rather than depicting single scenes, the drawings evoke rhythms to capture the flow of Venice, combining both real & photographic reference.

The tension between pictorial figuration & a flattened graphic perspective interests me much, helping to formulate a personal viewpoint & sense of place.

In conjunction with the drawings I am filming the city at night. I have a deep curiosity of the audio intimacy of Venice during night time & I'm gradually developing this into a short film piece. There is also recognition of how the image of Venice as reflection is a metaphor for this strange fairy tale like city, a stage for the tourist's gaze, an heightened sense of it's image. How the very architecture, the fine facades are but decoration for visual consumption. A work in progress at present, but I find the journey of such explorations useful in understanding my own creative practice & what the work is about.


also see:
http://reportager.uwe.ac.uk/projects12/mills/venice.htm

Drawing Process: Vietnamese handmade Bamboo Beaded Curtain

Installation of a traditional handmade bamboo beaded curtain depicting Ho Chi Minh City, for the Vietnamese Festival at Spitalfield Market. What fascinated me most in this commission was the translation of a drawing into a pixelated form via a craftsman in Vietnam (see previous post). Once hanging the image only emerged when viewed at certain angles. 

An American House

And yet it all seems limitless.

"Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps 20. And yet it all seems limitless."
Paul Bowles

Playa Maria La Gorda, Cuba