Elizabeth McAlpine has described herself as a « fanatical geologist » who explores the different layers of cinematic footage. Her works use a variety of film media, for example excerpts from feature films or found footage. Researching instances of repetitions in found media, she combines them to reveal new meanings, sometimes using a structure related to other forms of artistic expression. McAlpine looks at the ways in which we process and absorb film as well as transforming extracts into rather painterly images. She examines the way in which cinema acts upon the mind making the subliminal liminal.
All her films explore issues related to time (real and film), editing, continuity and rupture. McAlpine's work reflects the mediated world in which we live and looks at ways in which our cultural constructs are based on repetition and similarities.
Elizabeth McAlpine was born in 1973 in London, where she lives and works.
98m (the Height of the Campanile, San Marco, Venice, in Super 8mm Film) - Elizabeth McAlpine - 2005
Super 8mm film, 20min, projector, looper, 145x21,4x73,3cm
Elizabeth McAlpine's work frequently deals with time based issues as well as the experience of watching. In « The Height of the Campanile », McAlpine has calculated the height of the tower and timed her shooting of it so that the length of the film in meters is exactly that of the height of the tower. Thus the time it takes to view the film, and the pace at which the camera pans up the tower are equivalent to the height of the tower.
The image, which is quite grainy, is projected postcard-size, on the wall and the film loops back inside a specially constructed glass structure. The size of the projection, reminds the viewer that Venice has become, above all, a tourist destination. The use of 8 mm cine film recalls the way in which, prior to the invention of video, tourists would record their holidays on film for playback in the home. If the technology has a period feel, the mesmerising continuous loop suggests a certain timelessness that the visitor to Venice appreciates when standing in front in San Marco.
Thus while much of McAlpine's work is based on edits, repetitions and sequencing, here she has made a piece that apparently is simply a continuous shot: far from being fragmented it is a whole.
