Directing
Short film by Madelon Hooykaas and Elsa Stansfield.
The title of this video work, ‘Running Time’, refers to its duration. A figure running in landscape from infinity towards and past the camera is foreshadowed by a repeating image of himself. The soundtrack, treated similarly to the image, is made from recycling loops of a heartbeat. Both image and sound progress from the unidentifiable to the recognizable. In close relation to other works from this period, the central focus is on the pattern of lines that function as the basic building blocks of the video image, structuring visual representation in a significant way.
‘The Force Behind its Movement’ is structured in four parts, corresponding with the cardinal directions – West, South, East and North. These parts/directions have in common that they appear through or because of the wind. The work opens with the text: ‘We only see the fluttering of the flag. The force behind its movement remains invisible.’ Next, the camera, attached to a wind vane, moves around chaotically. Curtains are waving softly, affecting our view of a block of flats. The camera determines our view, literally, by alternatively focusing and moving out of focus. Then the curtain flaps in front of a screen, which shows Marilyn Monroe wearing a number of tulle shawls. This cover aimed at revealing more than it covered. But the tulle curtains prove exactly the opposite, because the viewer in fact reverts to being a voyeur again.
