Two Nudes — Sophie Standford Website

Sophie Standford

The Unearthings
A Rural Idyll
In the Forest Garden
Inner Landscapes
Absent Presence
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Photomontage
Performative Drawing
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@hortus_silvam

Trace Selected Works

Two Nudes

1994
Super-8mm film transferred to Betacam SP slowed to 10% | double projection | looped | silent
performers: Fiona Menmuir, Tom Noone

Inspired by the work and titles of works by Pierre Bonnard. The pointillist painting technique was found in the heavy grain of the Super-8 film. In the transfer to Betacam SP, light danced on the wall as the video was slowed to 10%. The nudes became almost static, shimmering like paintings, trapped in their frames.
Far apart
two nude bodies are naked
together
side by side with a distance between,
strangers brought together in vulnerability
trying to get out,
cornered by two walls and the floor,
going nowhere,
ignorant of the other.

Far apart, two nude bodies are naked, together, side by side with a distance between, strangers brought together in vulnerability trying to get out, cornered by two walls and the floor, going nowhere, ignorant of the other.

In this experimental film, transferred to video, the artist directed two actors to perform, seemingly trapped in a corner framed by the camera’s lens. They do not know each other, nor do they ever meet each other, yet projected side by side on human scale they each shared the other’s predicament; in the same physical situation but suffering their own psychological spaces. The grain of the Super-8mm film in low light conditions, is further degraded by multiple transfers ultimately to Betacam and projected life size at approx. 10% speed, reducing movement to the barely perceptible. Projected in a darkened space the effect was reminiscent of a pointillist painting technique bought to life. Experimental poetic prose accompanying many of the works from this time intertwined across the pages of a book, using different languages, in dialogue with each other.