Shimmer

Pinhole image 1 

Pinhole image 2
Shimmer construction image 1

verb (used without object)

1.

to shine with or reflect a subdued, tremulous light; gleamfaintly.

2.

to appear to quiver or vibrate in faint light or while reflectingheat waves.

–noun

3.

a subdued, tremulous light or gleam.

4.

a quivering or vibrating motion or image as produced byreflecting faint light or heat waves.

Origin: 

bef. 1100;  ME schimeren, s ( c ) hemeren,  OE scimrian;  c. Dschemeren,  G schimmern  to glisten

I've been asked to contribute an image to online gallery www.shimmer.ch, the concept is 'the shimmer'. I'm trying to use imagery from my recent work in Berlin - rephotographing one of the pieces with different lighting. I've also tried a couple of pinhole images. I'm really pleased with the way the object/image becomes indistinct. 

 

Shimmer construction image 2
Shimmer construction image 3
Stills from Le Corbusier's film Poem Electronique 1958

Doctored super-8 still from Images of Wonder photographed from projection

Shimmer

verb (used without object)

1.

to shine with or reflect a subdued, tremulous light; gleamfaintly.

2.

to appear to quiver or vibrate in faint light or while reflectingheat waves.

–noun

3.

a subdued, tremulous light or gleam.

4.

a quivering or vibrating motion or image as produced byreflecting faint light or heat waves.

Origin: 
bef. 1100;  ME schimeren, s ( c ) hemeren,  OE scimrian;  c. Dschemeren,  G schimmern  to glisten

Images of Wonder

Images of Wonder from Bill Leslie on Vimeo.

Hans Richter

Harry Smith

Mary Ellen Bute

Naum Gabo

 “The real stuff of Gabo’s art is not his physical materials, but his perception of space, time and movement. In the calmness at the ‘still centre’ of even his smallest works, we sense the vastness of space, the enormity of his conception, time as continuous growth.” In fact, the element of movement in Gabo’s sculpture is connected to a strong rhythm, more implicit and deeper than the chaotic patterns of life itself. The exactness of form leads the viewer to imagine journeying into, through, over and around his sculptures.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naum_Gabo

Collages

Put these up today. Monoprints with photo collage. More variations on a theme.

More Arrangements

CENTRUM residency

I'm here at Centrum for 2 weeks to work on material for a project with the working-title 'Images of Wonder'. I've brought a bunch of small objects and geometric cardboard shapes, some collages and Super-8 footage.

The plan for the two weeks is to work fairly openly on arranging existing objects and creating som new ones, edit the film footage and create a soundtrack with the help of David Moynihan - something referencing Iannis Xinnakis, Radiophonic Workshop and sci-fi. Spare and suspenseful is what I'm thinking at the moment. This soundtrack will then act as sound for the installation as a whole for the finishing event of the residency on Friday 20th as well as being permanently attached to the finished film.

Let's see what happens!?

CENTRUM

Arrived in Berlin on Thursday and moved into the gallery. http://centrumberlin.com/Project_room.html 

Sketch for Radiophonic-style soundtrack

The Golden Measure - Joaquin Torres-Garcia

Maquette Triptychs

Creature Feature 2010

Sound research

Part of the residency at Centrum will be making a soundtrack for the film and installation. I want it to be quite minimal, with references to atonal composition and electronic soundscapes.

MIsts

Iannis Xenakis soundtrack to Vasarely film

NEG-ALE (1960) (8:08)
for piccolo, horn, cello, and percussion
with the film "Vasarely"


In 1960, Xenakis composed the music NEG-ALE for P. Kassovitz's "Vasarely", an abstract film on the artwork of Op-Art master Victor Vasarely, documenting an exhibition of that painter's work at the Denise Renée Gallery. Xenakis provided music in the form of a piece entitled NEG-ALE for piccolo, horn, cello and percussion, but later withdrew the work from his catalogue.

http://www.ubu.com/film/xenakis_neg.html

Soundtrack research

Radiophonic workshop

Henry Moore

http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/henrymoore/8801.shtml

1951 documentary by Alan Read

Aelita 1920's Russian Sci-fi film extract

Tatlin's Tower

Anne Tyng & Louis Kahn

Deity - Hilma af Klint

The Model

The status of the model, Kiaer says, is always one of movement: it travels between an idea and the concretization of that idea, whether it has already taken place or is yet to come. It is physically light, transportable and schematic. It need not be finely crafted – in fact, speed is often a prerequisite of its construction. In some cases the model is impossibly optimistic, presenting an idealised image with all imperfections smoothed out. It is always critical in its relation to the thing it represents. […] The model is not a means to an end but an end in itself – the articulation of an idea perpetually preserved in the womb of the imagination, never tested by being born into reality.

[…]In contrast to its classical partner, praxis, which is understood as the direct articulation of the artists will, poesis refers to an exploratory process of making which results in te unveiling of meaning.

From Freize 132 'From Room to Room p142-5

Anna Molska - the less than utopian artist

I went to a screening at Tate Modern last night of work by Polish artists Anna Molska. I saw a few of her pieces a couple of years ago at the Berlin Bienale and was immediately attracted by the combination of moving image and abstract form. Listening the the discussion after the screening I am starting to see this work a little more in context and, what I think is interesting from my perspective is an extension of this relation between form and movement.

There seems to be a consideration of idealised forms - whether from modernist art (especially constructivism), renaissance (in the form of the perspective lines created in early performance video), or Chinese in Tanagram, 2006/2007. These are inherited fine art forms muddled by Molska by the introduction of real-life people interacting with them.

The impossibility of these forms which seems inextricably linked to Poland's Communist past perhaps point also to the contradiction inherent in the realisation of utopian ideas. A utopia (an elsewhere, or impossible, imaginary place) can exist in the realm of ideas and forms. It can be ideological and aesthetic. But when it becomes a reality it's functionality comes into question. Then comes a question of struggle, which is present in a couple of Molska's pieces, notably the artists physical struggle with her perspective lines (literally lines of bungy cable) as she stretches them away from the camera), or the struggle of the workers in The Weavers now unemployed who speak of their terrible living conditions. Here idealised aesthetic forms give way to the idealised architecture of the pit head, a symbol of the communist worker and his utopian labour, no longer revered, and the physical struugle of labour in an outdated industrial setting.

In some ways these films stage the the utopian dilemma. That of the utopian theory, form or image confronted with the less than utopian people.

Intro

I've never written anything on my blog before, which might seem strange. I've only ever used it for uploading images of ongoing work. Like a process gallery. But now seems like a good time to start writing as I've recently moved to London, after a 2 year soujourn in the country, and I'm trying to find a place for myself to work, show and make stuff happen. For the last few months I've been taking it easy. Working in the studio, playing aroud with materials, trying some new stuff. Bits and pieces. Getting enthusiastic, getting bored, starting something else. Now, after four months of being in this new situation it seems like time to get a little focus and direction. As oportunities to show work are, at least for now, few and far between, I've been lacking those times and contexts where work comes to fruition and so I hope I can use this blog, and this writing to bring that sense of context, clarity and drive to my work. Here goes...