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PROJECT

Siting Cinema 2016-21

Rio Cinema, London / Regent Street Cinema, London

Siting Cinema visually explores the cinema space as ‘site’ through a series of film installations made in independent art cinemas across the UK.  Cinema has become an industry under threat and siting cinema celebrates this ‘social practice’ by drawing the audience’s attention to the physical space in which they are seated.  Siting cinema attempts to interrogate the physical and perceptual relationship to the cinema as site, where the cinema screen, the mechanical rig and by extension the position of the viewer are all part of that equation. The cinema audience is forced to actively look, engage and experience the site.


The cinema is first filmed using the 360-degree camera, recording every detail of the empty architectural site, with the house lights on and the curtains closed. The pre-recorded film of the auditorium is then projected onto the cinema screen. There is a curious interaction between the camera’s monocular viewpoint and the space through which it moves. Rather than considering these mechanical rigs in terms of what they mean for the camera, this work argues for an understanding of how it allows for new explorations and perceptions of the site. The same rig is then used to track the movement of the recording device, by replacing the camera with a laser. As the audience ‘maps’ the projection to the laser within the ‘physical’ cinema space, a complex relationship occurs between artwork, audience and site.


SITE PERFORMANCE

Reference Rio 2016
Rio Cinema, London

Reference Rio explores the Rio cinema in London, an independent art cinema constantly under threat of closure. The film responds to the actual cinema space, the 1930s auditorium, a traditional cinema experience, with plush red velvet seats and long red curtains that swish back before the film starts.  



SITE PERFORMANCE

Reference Regents 2021
Regent Street Cinema, London


Reference Regents celebrates Britain's oldest cinema where the Lumiere' brother's films were first shown to the public in the UK in 1986. During the weekend of 25th & 26th September Reference Regents was performed in the auditorium at Regent Street Cinema before each film screening.