TEXT

The Drive Out Cinema

Furniture Drags

2004-06

Australia / Denmark / Scotland
3 x separate DVDs

2004 – 2006

These films are shot always from moving vehicles (Carrier series). Vital to the work is the notion of forward movement. Primary content is about Migration, displacement, destruction, loss, and the turbulence caused by aspects of relocation. Whether enforced or chosen.

In the films we see roads, dust clouds, people running attempting to catch up or get left behind, we see familiar items of domestic furniture, dragged and torn apart. The full process is caught on film.

Filmed only at night, the objects in the films become removed, highlighted, seemingly drifting, as they are torn, damaged and broken apart. The Drive Out Cinema investigates the themes of migration and loss, and how these might impact upon human relationships and material possessions.

We witness the full process repeatedly, various items of domestic furniture large and small sourced in various countries, from Beds, fridges, chairs, televisions, cookers, washing machines, design furniture, pianos, ping pong tables, couches, computers are all dragged and eventually destroyed, on deserted roads.
We see unknown figures run towards us, anxious to catch up and not get left behind. Dusty, frozen, and muddy surfaces reveal different landscapes of Australia, Denmark and Scotland. The roads fade and emerge always constant and present. Poetic violent and mesmerizing, finally all the viewer is left with are a series of dissolving lost highways and silent dust clouds, and wet roads in what could be a poignant ending or a new beginning.

The furniture from these films is sculpted and changed by the road and vehicle directly. The scars, bruises, scrapes and demolished pieces form the installation and feel of the situation in which the films are installed and projected.
Constant to each film is the deep bellowing drone of the engine, and the scraping of the destructive process endured and undergone by the furniture. The destruction of the objects most familiar within our built environments of comfort can also be viewed as symbolic, especially when thought of as destroyed by the combustion engine.

These interconnected projects highlight the very experience of migration, common to many today. As well as our notions of value; through the use of different styles, time periods and values of furniture the project connects to people of different age groups and backgrounds.

“ I want people to consider, see and feel what it is like to lose all that is familiar. Through force or choice, Migration and displacement is an ever increasing and pressing issue in the contemporary world. As well as question their own needs and desires for the lastest items and consumer goods – which ultimately have a far reaching global affect,.. how much do we need? And what happens when we lose it?”