SOMETHING ABOUT TODAY

Against a background of orchestral music by Sibelius, photographic images are presented with the colour drained. At first the screen seems to be one solid block of cream, but slowly some colour is faded in, providing outlines of shapes. As the viewer ascertains the outline of buildings, words are imposed over the image - a contents page is slowly provided. As the video then moves systematically through the sections referred to in the contents page, quotations from the works of Octavio Paz, Jorge Luis Borges and from Mozart’s ’Magic Flute’ are presented. Moving from image to image, the camera is shaky, giving the impression of dynamism. Is this a photograph, or a hand-held video camera filming a deserted street? Still images are blurred and imposed one on top of the other, so that shapes and outlines from one carve out new lines in another. At times clearer, at others more obscure, the shapes are never fully clear or fully identifiable. The viewer can only guess at the subject and significance of the original image. The blurring of focus and colour gives the video a nostalgic quality, like a watercolour painting or an old sepia photograph. People, streets, parks, monuments, houses, museum exhibits - this work addresses forgetfulness, the transience of art and the inadequacy of language.