It is a new year and I plan to start regularly sharing on the blog the research I’ve been doing for the new animated work. I’m not a natural writer (probably why I’m a visual artist) but I will try to share my thoughts and work in process as this project develops.

It seems important to start with this image of ‘the path’.

It is my intention within the new work to try and visualise a landscape as a connecting point across time. The image of the path is a very physical visual narrative of everyone who has trodden the path leaving their trace (of cause this is not a new idea and was captured eloquently by Richard Long in ‘a line made by walking’), but I want to explore the potential for images such as this to act as an imaginary interweaving of narratives across time. On a cold morning such as captured here I can almost see the breath of a walker hanging in the air or the shadow of a figure emerging in the distance.

In my animation I want to create an encounter within the space, a subtle disruption that unites for a moment the different timelines in the landscape. I’m thinking about animation as a collage overlaying two separate histories in one frame to create a new narrative. At the moment I’m focusing on the naturally occurring shifting elements that can alter and unsettle the stillness of a scene such as shadow, reflection, light, mist. The new collaged insertion acting as a mirage.

I’m also interested in implied motion, which I feel this image contains. While looking at this photo I can’t help but imagine physically walking from one end of the path to another. While looking I’m anticipating something breaking the stillness and I feel this tension building. I want to use the animation as a device to elongate this timeframe and bring to the forefront this tension, like a taught band, between stillness and movement.