CRYSTAL WORLD (2013)
11'53"
16mm, Digital SLR stop-motion
Crystal World is inspired by JG Ballard’s apocalyptic science fiction novel where a viral crystal transforms trees, animals, humans and architecture into frozen jewels forever suspended in time and space. The novel is a haunting portrait of a world in which everything is illuminated by prismatic light, a ‘leaking’ of time that causes humans to experience individual moments endlessly looped, repeated and prolonged. The film adapts this concept of crystallization and applies it to fragments from Charles Laughton’s iconic 1955 film The Night of the Hunter.
Commissioned by Oriel Davies Gallery, Wales (UK)
11'53"
16mm, Digital SLR stop-motion
Crystal World is inspired by JG Ballard’s apocalyptic science fiction novel where a viral crystal transforms trees, animals, humans and architecture into frozen jewels forever suspended in time and space. The novel is a haunting portrait of a world in which everything is illuminated by prismatic light, a ‘leaking’ of time that causes humans to experience individual moments endlessly looped, repeated and prolonged. The film adapts this concept of crystallization and applies it to fragments from Charles Laughton’s iconic 1955 film The Night of the Hunter.
Scenes from the film are reconstructed in miniature and placed under water in fish tanks. Over the course of two weeks the underwater puppets and sets are crystallised in a mono ammonium phosphate solution. The film is photographed using time-lapse, mirrors, prisms and projectors.
Commissioned by Oriel Davies Gallery, Wales (UK)
Watch the film here.
Selected screenings (2014)
• Film Exercise: Freeze Frames Arnolfini, Bristol (UK)
• Kinomuzeum, Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw (PL)
• The Crystal World, Oriel Davies Gallery, Wales (UK) (Solo show)
• International Film Festival Rotterdam (NL) (Premiere)
• Melbourne International Film Festival (AUS) (Best Experimental Film)
• Curtas Vila Do Conde (PT)
• Paradise Remade, Hastings (UK)
