After Muybridge (passers by at the back of my studio)
2005
16mm film, mute, 3mins 11 secs, looped
Neville constructed a four by three metre frame , from wood, string, and cloth, emulating the one used by Muybridge in his well-known photographic series. Filming from an alley way at a distance of approximately 20 metres, a similar distance commonly employed by Muybridge, he took film sequences, shot at about 400 frames per second, of passers-by who chanced past the frame ( The frame was attatched to the backyard fencing of a department store). These pedestrians were unaware of the frame ( which was flush with the fencing), and would usually only notice the camera as they heard the loud noise of the high-speed camera starting up. The resulting images create a disorientating tension between the constructed backdrop of the ‘Muybridge’ frame, and the unrehearsed action of casual passers-by who react only to the camera upon the moment they are in front of it. This, in turn , creates a dialogue of tension with the original Muybridge series which was, of course, constructed in a highly artificial sense. Both works use state of the art ( for their day) motion analysis equipment.