THIS WEEK’S FEATURED FILM PRESENTATION: "Footage” (Sept 29-Oct 6)

WATCH THE TRAILER (CLICK IMAGE ABOVE FOR THE FULL MOVIE)

Footage was shot on June 28, 2021, and records the various actions that build to a single performance. The work dialogues with the performance for camera tradition, but it is clearly edited and narratively stylized. There is no direct audience. The main recorded action is me sitting on bags of ice for several hours while they melt under my weight and temperature. A rudimentary microphone and speaker set up transmits noises from the hallway into my performance space.

The title of the work straddles two meanings. Footage can mean a “film or videotape that shows a single event or place.” Footage also refers to how the size of rooms and buildings are measured, i.e., square footage. Scales of distance and time are conflated in this work through the melting of ice and the shifting of my body, in addition to the empirical measurement of time offered by the clock. The performance takes place in a re-purposed elementary school, where artist studios still contain artifacts from the building's former life.

As Footage progresses, the ambient sounds from the hallway, people walking, doors opening, etc., permeate through the speaker into my setting. The telephone room, curiously named, beeps at a consistent rhythm and frequency. This sound may also remind the viewer of a more clinical setting, such as the heart or oxygen monitor used in a hospital. The beep permeates my video at regular intervals, acting as another measurement of time passing, in addition to the clock ticking and the ice melting beneath me.

Runtime: 24 minutes 17 seconds
Best Viewed: Any Screen / Cinema Presentation

Director Biography - Laura Paolini
Laura Paolini (she/her) currently lives in Ottawa, unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe Algonquin territory. Her artwork is primarily conceptual and manifests through installations, videos, and performances, often unfolding where these forms meet, merge and collapse. She has performed at art-based events and festivals, most recently during PERF; a performance art Biennale hosted by AXENÉO7 (evening curated by Anna Khimasia and Thomas Grondin). She has also exhibited in various Canadian institutions including Hamilton Artists Inc, Xpace Cultural Centre, The Ottawa Art Gallery and Art Mûr during the 17th edition of Fresh Paint/New Construction (2021).

Director Statement
My practice stands between historical interrogation, personal experience, and the conceptual trajectories of contemporary art. I am interested in complex overlaps and fleshy folds: the space where the "political" person and "personal" person meet, merge and overlay. My work's exploration concentrates on performative actions and the methods we use to engage with objects and spaces. Throughout my practice, bodies and objects work together as a scale, not exclusively measuring distance through space and time, but also a scale that includes functions, habits, and the conditioning of a body through these means.

Previously, my projects were mechanical, more interactive, and electronically-activated. Now, I am exploring the ambiguous, auxiliary space between the viewer's body and my own, or between an object, myself and the viewer. The art I make now is executed through video, performance and installation, and I actively research where these mediums overlap and collapse in on each other. In doing this, I also trouble when an artwork starts and finishes, and how different events become implicated in the unfolding of the work. The documenting and re-presenting of performance can mean making practical preparations for the next appropriation, the reenactment, or iteration. Thus, my work strives to create hybrid spaces, which point to the larger social matrices that are relational and informed by recent political and social history.

Credits & Specifications:
Director: Laura Paolini
Cinematography: Lesley Marshall
Post Production Services: Nathan Estabrooks

Completion Date: August 15, 2021
Country of Origin: Canada
Country of Filming: Canada
Shooting Format: digital
Aspect Ratio: 16.9