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DAN SHIPSIDES - Temporary viewpoint - the topology of Israel

 

Installation viewvideo detailvideo detail

Temporary viewpoint - the topology of Israel

Scaffold step construction, 15cm lcd video screen, headphones.
DVD 10min,

2005

The video is based around footage shot during a trip to Israel and the West Bank areas. The crux of the video is the conversational dialogue of a non-Israeli, English speaking Irishman describing the landscape and geo-political situation during a car journey - an Irish accent describing that landscape.

It also includes dialogue and footage from other journeys in the area and incidental shots from this trip. It concerns the local and international perspectives gained or the impressions one might get through a fleeting visit and insider/outsider knowledge. The footage is shot and collected from different sources, different types of camera and also taken from TV. An emphasis is placed on movement or a relationship of the viewer to the environment. It includes sky scenes of a paracender floating above the sand dunes, an ant carrying an insects wing, a precarious descent down a river bank and scenes shots from a moving car.

The video is inconclusive and cyclical. It presents a negotiation of the spaces and people encountered.

The installed steps actively involve the viewer moving into a new space to view the work and implicates them as part of it. The top step purposely wobbles so the viewer, conscious of their elevation, has an edge of vulnerable uncertainty and is exposed to others in the gallery space - they are “on show” too.

This video was made during a short research trip for a project at the Museum of Herzilya called The Belfast Way - a show of Northern Ireland based artists. 2005

 

video detail - arafat

 

Shown at:

Ardous intent
. (The Hanging) Tulca 2008. Group show (collab. with Neal Beggs and Tibaut Espiau). Galway Arts Centre.
The Belfast Way Museum of Herzilya, Israel. 2005