video still Anne Bean 
video still Anne Bean 
video still Anne Bean 
video still Anne Bean 
video still Anne Bean | Starlings (2012) |
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A three screen video installation commissioned for the new 50m swimming pool in Bristol as part of the Hengrove Park Leisure Centre art programme opening March 2012 Hengrove Park Leisure Centre, Bristol, BS14 0JZ The initial inspiration for this work Starlings at Hengrove Leisure Centre came from several sources. Firstly, historical, in that Bristol has had a long association with synchronised swimming which began at Bristol Central in 1947 when swimmers formed the Bristol Central Floating Team. Bristol swimmers have been involved in synchronised swimming at an international level since 1977, including currently being in full time training for London 2012. Secondly, recognising the flows, fluctuations and kinetic energy of this sport made me speculate about various ways of capturing these oscillating visual formations. I realised that thermal-imaging, a device that is sensitive to the invisible infra-red portion of the electromagnetic wave (heat), would vividly reveal the huge dynamics and energy fields that these synchronised bodies create with and within the swirling, eddying, frothing, splashing, churning agitations of the water, opening us up to different and surprising ways of perceiving our universe. I also experimented with various other techniques, including a high-speed camera to define moments in detail, as well as strapping underwater cameras onto the swimmers' ankles and wrists to record the choreography, so the capturing of the footage parallels the vitality of the action. When talking with the young swimmers in Bristol, they spoke about the sense of being a ‘single entity’ when the choreography was perfected and the whole routine smoothly in place. This made me think of starlings flocking, known as murmurations, that I had witnessed near Bristol at Ham Wall. Consequently, the starlings were filmed at Ham Wall and became an intrinsic part of the three-screen edit. The work was edited to the third movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K453 which Mozart is said to have taught to his pet starling. |