Footage

'FOOTAGE'

From Frith Street to the National Gallery

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man."

― Heraclitus (circa 500BC)

My previous works on paper developed my attempts to use an everyday, repeatable experience in my work; the twice daily rural dog walk; an idea that came to me after looking at Bruce Nauman's video work 'setting a good corner' ( Allegory and Metaphor) 1999

For these current works on paper I took a slightly different approach and used an urban walk from the Frith Street Gallery to the National Gallery. I made this walk when researching particular artists, and thinking about ideas such as 'the Derive' and the practices of psychogeography. The walk was filmed and then the drawings were made by projecting the film onto the studio wall and drawing on top of the moving image, thus experiencing aspects of the walk several more times.

These works demonstrate that though the walk (footage) remains the same each time, the recorded or interpretive outcome of this event can be very different. In using an everyday activity and repeating this, I suggest that we can start to think about that activity differently and as such I am beginning to think about both walking and drawing as physical events, as psychological events, as mental liberation, as record, and as ritual.

From left to right

Frith Street to the National Gallery No.2

Frith Street to the National Gallery No.1

Frith Street to the National Gallery No.3

Rob Smith