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.
'The Train Effect'
'The Train Effect' contemplates notions of time through the history of the railway. A pdf of the text can be downloaded below.
'Bual has produced a lyrical and free-associative text reflecting on a wide range of subjects that relate to time as linear, cyclical, cosmic, geological, political and abstract' - Ingrid Swenson
A bird's eye view of a hand-powered train turntable is shot from above resembling a huge clockface. Starting from a standstill two people rotate a 130 ton engine.
Commissioned work for Didcot Railway Centre, supported by Arts&Heritage and funded by Arts Council England.
A video still from 'The Train Effect', 4 minutes and 18 seconds Watch the video here