Details of Images attached:
Guiding Lights A & Guiding Lights B
‘Guiding lights’ (video installation, mixed media) 2005, as at Early Gallery, Osaka.
Ima & Battle
Installation view of ‘Ima’ (video ) 2004 and ‘Battle of Trafalgar’ (video ) 2003 as at Fukugan+ Gallery, Osaka
GOSPORT 03
Gosport 03, UK 2004, c-print 53cm x 28cm
NARA 03
Nara 03, Japan 2005, c-print 53cm x 25cm
OSAKA 06
Osaka 06, Japan 2004, c-print 53cm x 30cm
OSAKA 11
Osaka 11, Japan 2004, c-print 53cm x 27cm
SEOUL 01
Seoul 01, South Korea 2005, c-print 53cm x 29cm
SF 01
San Francisco 01, USA 2005, c-print 53cm x 38cm
Artist statement:
Living in Japan it’s easy to notice how video and photography are heavily associated with capturing behavior. With advances in ‘digital’ and camera phones, a vast majority film or photograph themselves and then distribute the images easily to family and friends. Cameras are behavioral recording devices and I use my camera in the same way a wildlife photographer might. By waiting and preying on sequences or routines, my work seeks to investigate the structure that we attempt to apply to our seemingly 'random' lives. Common subjects throughout my work are the things that stand between chaos and order and in particular, traffic lights have become most symbolic of that relationship. They are necessary devices which herd people around each other (usually) without incident by providing a means of 'control' that we passively adhere to.
My video installations and videos often focus centrally on the lights themselves. Usually filmed individually out of sequence and reassembled into grids, the lights change in and out of sequence, transfixing the viewer as they descend deeper into a seemingly chaotic state. By stark contrast, my photographic works distance us from the lights and present them subtly in apparently normal street scenes. However, as with most landscapes, crucial details can often be overlooked and each has been intervened with so as to hint at possible chaotic consequences that with all good intentions might never happen.
My most recent project to date is Guiding Lights 2005, an installation which featured a screen of some 200 lights suspended from the ceiling of the gallery space akin to a night sky. Filmed from a journey home in Osaka, it plays on the notion of how much time we all spend looking at traffic lights by asking viewers to lay down on the gallery floor (on the artificial grass) and gaze at the new stars. At the opening, visitors were invited to ‘discover’ their own constellations which now permanently accompany the installation for others to engage in looking for. Such acts of participation are becoming more frequent in my practice and currently, I am working on a version of the game of chess which centers primarily on our ability to react and perform within a given system.
Gary McLeod
For sales, commissions and to send comments to the artist.
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