Cutting-In
Installation, 2013
Steel, acrylic, 2 x projected digital films (looped)
Metalwork: Michael Sanders
Cutting-In is a site-specific installation which responds to the notion of film as measure. Two films of the same length are projected on to screens at either end of the gridded metal structure. In an act of duplication, the films themselves are filmed through the structure itself, which has been then rotated by 90 degrees. The films document me drawing, then painting, two red circles on the walls of the Cookhouse gallery space. Although the projected red circles are the same size in the projections, one circle is in fact twice the size of the other, but is recorded from twice the viewing distance.
The red circles, a reference to Giotto’s legendary freehand drawing of a perfect circle in red paint in order to demonstrate his skill, remain on the gallery walls as traces of the filmed action. The term cutting-in refers to the term used by decorators when painting to a prescribed line, but also suggests the editing process. In the film, I wear my father’s white overalls, a homage to my late father who was a painter-decorator.