My overall practice is driven by my fascination with the illusory qualities inherent in cinema and early animation. Imagining myself as a cinema pioneer I explore the interplay between the moving and the still, creating works that sit between the pre-cinematic and the digital.
By discovering low-fi ways to add movement to single images and commonplace objects/materials, my intent is to ignite an element of wonder at the illusion of cinema, giving the everyday enough of a twist to allow the imagination to run free.
We live in a society where the material is being replaced by the immaterial. This has drawn me to use tangible everyday materials in my work that I juxtapose with the relative immateriality of video. Behind the scenes of my videos there are various hand-crafted mechanisms that drive them that are hand-operated/cranked.
In recent years I have made kinetic works for audience interaction that have been shown internationally including Turner Contemporary, Margate, U.K, 1shanthiroad, Bangalore, India and Basement 6, Shanghai, China.
'Fade' & 'High and Low', Horsebridge Art Centre
Commissioned work for Whitstable Biennale 2022 Afterwardness
My water driven sculptures are the result of ideas formed on a residency on the Isle of Sheppey in 2020. I discovered how tidal flows were first recorded and was inspired by coastal erosion.
I created two works, 'Fade' and 'High and Low'. Both contemplate the connection between the natural forces of time and tide.
In the newest work 'High and Low'. water conducts three kinetic sculptures made of steel, bamboo and glass. By embracing the performative flow and fundamentally uncontrollable nature of water, these instruments respond to and subvert a history of human-made devices built to control and harness time, tides, and the elements.
Information about 'Fade' can be found here
High & Low, 2022 Image: Rob Harris
High and Low, 2022,
bamboo, mild steel & glass.
190cm x 54cm x 54cm
Commissioned for Whitstable Biennale 2022
Image: Rob Harris
Water is hand poured into a bucket at the top of each structure. The water slowly empties through a tube onto a piece of bamboo, causing it to seesaw. As it does so it distributes water into two glass vessels. When the water reaches the top of the glasses it siphons onto a steel plate which corrodes with time. Once the glasses are empty they begin to refill.
The bamboo seesaw strikes the vessels creating a sound that changes pitch as they fill with water (Please see the video above to hear the sound).
Image: Rob Harris
Image: Rob Harris
Image: Rob Harris
Details of the corrosion of the steel base plate after 9 days
