Because We Have Hands

Because We Have Hands from Bill Leslie on Vimeo.

New film made with Claire Undy.

Peer Session 71: Bill Leslie and Kate Squires

 

Presented work at Peer Session 71 on October 19th 2016 with Kate Squires. Great evening, lots of people came and the discussion was really exciting and useful. I had made a new three projection assemblage of much of the work I have made over the past year. I was really please with the outcome and I think this will be a way of presenting the work that I should explore further. 

Brighton Photo Fringe Participation 16 Project

These are the results from a series of 5 workshops with different groups in Brighton during September/October 2016. Each workshop asked a different question, related to my research. Participants were asked to create sculptures using different materials and take photos of them. The results are our answer to the questions. Printed on 6x3ft board they were displayed in the centre of Brighton. http://photofringe.org/2016/exhibitions/open16-participate-bill-leslie-photography-and-sculpture

Drawing on Film - Workshop at Tate Summer School

I was asked by Anna Lucas to run a 16mm workshop over a day and a half as part of the Tate Summer School 2016. We started the day with a warm up activity. We played an early 16mm negative film on a projector, then reeled the film out across the space (the whole 100ft) and I asked the 30 participants to colour the film using sharpies. They had about 4 ft each. Every couple of minutes I asked them to swap. The idea was to cover as much film as quickly as possible. We then fed the end of the film into the projector and it dragged across the space as it was projected. This is the result.

Some of my Sculptures Move From Left to Right

Some of my sculptures move from left to right from Bill Leslie on Vimeo.

This was the film that resulted form the shoot using the Canon C3000 and motorised slider. It was shown at the 'Research in Focus' exhibition at KU.

Shooting objects with Canon C3000 and slider

Working in the film studio with the Canon C3000 crewed by fine art undergraduates. We were trying to find ways for objects to enter and leave the frame. Initially I thought that pairing the super high definition camera with some obviously hand operated revolves and slides would be interesting, but the quality of the image meant that wobbly movement looked really circumspect. We spent a lot of time with a motorised slider to create shots where objects smoothly moved across the frame. The slider was only 1m long which restricted what we were able to shoot in order for things to enter and leave the frame. Larger objects had to be cropped close, but the results were amazing. The clarity of the images with the perfect smoothness of the pan are very enticing. Being able to make out all of the surface texture in the small plaster pieces feels intoxicating.

Methodology Workshop with first year Fine Art Students at Kingston University, London

I ran a two-day methodology workshop which became known as 'Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained'. Students were asked to bring in a piece of work - something they weren't entirely sure about, something unfinished or that had been hanging around for a while. They paired up and swapped artworks without explanation and spent 10 minutes quietly looking at and considering each others work. After 10 minutes they had to return the work to its owner with an instruction or task that would develop the piece and had to be completed within an hour. The brief was to try and stretch each other as far as possible. If it was an object, make it a performance, if it was a film, make it a drawing etc... After the hour we regrouped, changed partners and repeated.

At the end of the second day we made an impromptu exhibition,

It's a film

It’s a film. They’re all films. Things appear and then go abruptly. They move, are moved amidst the whirr and clatter of the mechanism. They judder and flicker and glow and fade haphazardly. The action is simple. Things appear, or move in to the centre of the stage. They are handled, stroked, turned, lifted and replaced.

There is movement even when there isn’t any. How many people are present? Who is this for? Why this sequence? Why these movements?

The things themselves are white against the black background. Beneath them the back surface is marked and whitened, presumably by the objects. How long has this been going on for? Are these only a few of many more in a larger sequence? Or has this happened many times before, the same 9 objects appearing again and again, marking and scuffing?

There is no sound, apart from the mechanical clatter, but the way the objects are handled, presented, suggests a kind of patter. A demonstration, but for whom? The missing words seem conspicuous, but to hear them would probably be a disappointment.

They are not all white, some of them look grey-ish.

They’re supposed to be sculptures, apparently.

Written during a writing workshop run by Brain Dillon at KU May 2016

9 Objects

9 Objects from Bill Leslie on Vimeo.

The first 16mm film that I feel to be a finished work. It was made as one roll of 100ft reversal to be screened at  Analogue Recurring 2016.

Typology of the Pictured Sculpture

Over the last year I have been collecting images of sculpture from books and essays. The idea is to bring together references and to order them loosely in types with the hope that seeing them placed together will bring about new relationships and connections. This is an ongoing project that I will continue adding images to. I would like to make something similar for references I have gathered of sculpture on film but am as yet unsure as to what form this should take.

PERFECTING THE SEQUENCE

PERFECTING THE SEQUENCE

(Shooting ‘9 Objects’ 16mm film)

Shooting this film has felt like a performance or a choreography. There is a list on paper, small pen drawings of each in sequence running down the page, annotated with length of time, focal distance and f-stop. There is a table with a black paper backdrop which curves down to the table top. There are two lights, one on the left side points across the table the other, on the right is angled up towards the ceiling. There is a small white circle glued to the paper at the centre of the table. There are white marks and scrapes all around it. The camera is on a tripod and faces the centre of the table. There is a collection of small objects on top of a chest of drawers to the left of the table.

The choreography goes like this. An object is taken from the chest of drawers and placed onto the white spot. The camera is wound. The paper is consulted. A magnifying glass and the torch on an iphone are used to set the focal length and aperture, then the focal length on the viewfinder. The tripod is moved, a tape measure used to get the corresponding distance from the object. The viewfinder and the wind handle on the tripod are used to centre the object. The camera is triggered and a timer started. After a moment the object is moved and handled as appropriate and replaced. It is removed and the camera trigger films black for a second.

Shoot Schedule for 9 Objects

5 Towers

5 Towers from Bill Leslie on Vimeo.

Shot more towers. After a discussion with Dean Kenning (first supervisor) it seemed that the least interesting aspect of the collapsing towers was the collapse. So I shot footage of constructions using the wind handle on my tripod to make shaky pans up and down. We also wondered what it meant to make a still moving image and perhaps this film approaches that question. There is so much movement even in a static shot when using 16mm. We also talked about cutting from the standing tower to the result of the collapse which happens at the end of this film. I'm not sure yet whether this is interesting or not, but the texture and feel of this footage I really like.

Bisanbos

Bisanbos from Bill Leslie on Vimeo.


Suggested to Jo Addison (my supervisor) that we could film something together, something of her's. I'd seen this piece 'Bisanbos' at her show at Tintype. I thought it would be interesting to film a 'finished piece' or a sculpture that existed in it's own right, as most of the things I've shot so far have felt like things made to be filmed. Things I've made to try out. It's edited to two short Faust tracks. Not sure how successful this is but really interesting to think about sound and to film someone else's work - a way of spending time and getting to know something much better. I really love the initial shot of it rotating at the edge of the shot. Watching it now, it's so bonkers I'm not sure what to make of it.

Also shot some 16mm which couldn't look more different! Like some sort of lost sci-fi from the 1020s. There's something about the lack of definition and the overwhelming contrast which could be interesting.

Bisanbos 16mm from Bill Leslie on Vimeo.

Research Motage

Research montage from Bill Leslie on Vimeo.

I made this video for a presentation about my 'research so far'. Not sure if it explains or mystifies what I'm doing but it was good to put reference material against my own work. Better than talking anyhow!

Collapsing Towers Vimeo from Bill Leslie on Vimeo<


Collapsing towers footage. There was a great joy in the studio in knocking these over and then reviewing the results, but now as a video, I'm not so sure this is all that interesting. The magic moment seems to be when the towers hover for a second in the air but still maintain their coherence as structures. The resulting tumble seems inevitable and a little obvious.

Collapsing Towers 16mm from Bill Leslie on Vimeo.

The 16mm however is quite exciting. Hand processed these in old chemicals and the bleach had gone off. The image is negative but really marked by putting it in the old bleach - which has messed with the celluloid but not reversed it!