Palindrome Series

2 x 16mm film
digital sound file
18 minutes
2013

Projections and performances:
National Portrait Gallery (London) - part TestseT
Analogue Recurring (London) - part TestseT
Café OTO (London)
Echo Park Film Center (Los Angeles)
Frequency Festival (Lincoln) - part RotatoR
Utopographies, Chelsea College of Arts (London)
Analogue Recurring (London) - part RotatoR and OXO XOXO
Crak Festival, Saint-Merry (Paris) - with Oiseaux Tempête
La Friche (Marseille) - with Oiseaux Tempête
London Short Film Festival, ICA (London) - part OXO XOXO
IFFR (Rotterdam)- with Oiseaux Tempête and Gareth Davis
Cinemateket, the Dream that Kicks (Oslo) - part OXO XOXO
Independent Film Show (Napoli)
Lewisham Arthouse (London) - with Charles Hayward
Les Inattendus (Lyon)

Double screen series of 5 films. Each piece is constructed in the form of the palindrome; a sequence of elements which appear the same when perceived both forwards and backwards. Editing was done through a process using chance as well as precise measurement. The films are all made with ostensibly useless materials; paper cut-outs, artificial hair, discarded negatives, old newspapers and found footage. By using cheap materials and redundant 16mm technology the films escape from the money driven film industry and become handmade, living objects.

Additionally, in two of the five pieces locations appear that are designed to express impenetrable power. By deconstructing these locations with the aid of mirrors, animation techniques and double exposures they become playfull, active spaces. Reading the image becomes an active game, with sequences that appear upside-down, forward-backward and in negative and positive. The variability of the spatial set-up of the two screens, the projectors running in and out of sync and live mixing of optical and pre-recorded sound are adding a performative, expanded element.

The 5 different parts were given palindromic names: RotatoR, 13.31, LeveL, TestseT, and OXO XOXO.