Photo by Bingham Thurgate
Photo by Bingham Thurgate

Compiling video and sound from various modes of transport and travel, ‘Forward, Backward’ is a study of movement. Placed in the centre of the installation, the viewer is immersed in a perpetual state of transit, disoriented by the physical act of turning back and forward. Evoking the feeling of looking out of a window of a moving vehicle, the work is a blur until something catches your eye, coming into focus before slipping away. Intercutting the videos of transit are birds in flight, propelled forward by a path invisible to the human eye. Drawing into relief the complexities of human movement across land and water, ‘Forward, Backward’ looks to the birds for direction. 

 Collaborating with sound artist Josh Peters, the work is a spatial sound experience, interweaving sound works made by Rebecca Bracewell, Andrew Wear, Felix Adsett and Xavier Wear Gardener. The work was exhibted at Quality, following a one month residency in the space. The total work runs for 50mins. 

Instal Video
Install video shot by Felix Adsett


Words from Jasper Jordan-Lang: ‘Forward, Backward is mostly a sensory film, what little narrative it does have is simply implied. It gives a feeling, however of some type of lightness, even when uneasy, a sense of agility. Moving between screens, the floor, ceiling, distorting as the silk veil spins, the shot stretching out on the wheel-like mechanism,  Forward, Backward involves constant change.’
 
Read full review here published in Kinotopia


Excerpt from ‘Foward, Backward’

Excerpt ft. score by Xavier Wear Gardener