Salmon Song is a five-screen panorama assembled from footage of beach and river walks made using specially built camera attachments: trolleys which keep the rim of a wooden wheel in the foreground of the image at all times; a crude wooden probe protruding into the frame at top centre. This footage is synchronised across five screens in a series of journeys: for example, land recedes from the viewer on four screens, in tension with a central screen which shows a water-level journey upstream, along a culverted river. At certain times the relentless motion breaks to show a panoramic assemblage of double-helix threads and disembodied eyes slowly opening - whilst tension is maintained in an abstract soundtrack which develops the rotational theme of the wheel.
The work attempts to link physical and physiological states: representing an inexorable journey into crisis, followed by a rehabilitation in a long draw-back from the sea into a field of pure colour.
Funding & exhibition details
Salmon Song was produced through a Video Artist's Bursary funded by The Arts Council of Great Britain in association with Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic (Dept Media Studies), Projects UK and Northern Arts
Production assistance: Stefan Gec, Chris Wainwright, Frances Hegarty
Shown in Holland and throughout the UK during 1987/88
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