Pico los Foyus III is about a ‘view’ from a specific place (el Cantil/ Alto de Brez) to this small pico in the Asturian Cantabrian Mountains of Spain. The ‘view place’ constricts this distant experience of the pico both through a very narrow spectrum of gaze as well as preventing a more profound physical engagement (one cannot simply walk or travel directly from the ‘view place’ to the pico). In some respects the consequences of this ‘view place’ remains that of the tourist view, which is a disengaged novel relationship, which seeks to collect and therefore possess the view yet its un-remarkableness and its similarity and relationships to other mountain forms, found around it, means it would probably never feature in any tourist itinerary. It is though, still a location that has been persistently present and explored in my work over a number of years and seasons. It has become a focus, a point of view , a locale for daily thoughts when I am in its vicinity.
The ‘view’ clearly draws on Cezanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire both in terms of its persistent exploration of Euclidian form, and its many associations which include a sense of underlying permanence as well as change. There is also an external time frame which Cezanne was working within, which was during a period of increasing consumption of landscape through a newly developing tourism industry assisted by new technologies.
The primary focus of the Pico is of course the shape of the mountain seen from a particular position yet ones understanding of it is governed not only by natural changes of light, biology, atmosphere and changes of view but also a reflects on what we loose by our constant addition of landscape features through artificial light, pollution (in this local noise pollution fom aircraft) and memory of the journey to reach the place. It is these factors that form a 13min non dialogue experimental film divided into 4 roughly equal sections and 1 short section as well as a physical ‘bookwork’ that uses screen shots that are physically worked over.
The ‘Brez Fragments’ set out to challenge the sense of permanence that photographed printed images may seem to possess, a reality that someone has nevertheless felt requires preserving. In fact these images metadata, are tagged as ‘research documents’ in my work. Consequently the image starts with a photographic recording before being eroded by change
The image is not simply a ‘snap’ but a considered act after a long period of looking. The images for the ‘Brez fragments’ relate not to the view but the ‘viewing place’ and yet the forms that were recorded relate to the pico through a similarity of tectonic action and geological stratification let alone its biological life. The Brez images becomes what we may consider to be a reality. It is then, this understanding that offers a sense of permanence of the subject (ie the research image), but it is of course not the reality only, ‘a reality’. The images are then worked into and over by hand to release or impose different lights, forms and expressions that exist or existed within the print and the subject, possibly creating perhaps a different reality.
“Pico los Foyus III”.2022. 13 min non dialogue artist film. Screengrabs from film in frames 1-8.
“Brez fragments 1 and 2”. Gouache over black pigment ink on Somerset enhanced 225 gm cotton rag papers in frames 9-10. Details of Brez fragments (Brez 3 and Brez 5) in frames 11-12
Film-work officially selected by Liber Film Festival Greece 2023.