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Double
Felice Hapetzeder. 2016 (7:21)
(Kristina Kvalvik video archive) 

 

Kristina Kvalvik's material for Carousell consists of 8mm celluloid films that have been scanned over to standard definition. The footage is primarily mountainous landscapes from Norway. Some clips seem black and white and focus on objects. The footage imparts a feeling of distance to me. This, then, is the cherished "real" film; the material that many artists fetishize for what are sometimes called its metaphysical properties. I photographed a lot with rolls of film back when they were in general use, but have never filmed with Film.

I have a deep interest in the rise of the motion picture. Eadweard Muybridge's and Georges Demenÿ's experiments in the late 1800s for instance show the difficulty of capturing a sequence of images with their contemporary cameras and development techniques. Muybridge pried a turtle out of its shell to film its last heartbeat while it lay strapped to a wagon that was drawn past a series of cameras, which took pictures sequentially. Demenÿ tried to stare straight into the sun, his eyes tearing, so the camera could make exposures at every movement of his lips as he said "I love you;" the pictures were to be used as an aid for the deaf. Today, going back and working with an objectively outdated technology is a big step. Doing it for a potential qualitative gain would require such costly processes that it seems impossible to me, if the material itself is not intended to carry the entire concept.

 

Double. Konstnärshuset. Stockholm. Sweden. 2017

 

 

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