Paper Landscape at Les Voutes in Paris

by Guy Sherwin
1975/2006
9mins Colour Silent Super 8
The filmmaker interacts with film projected onto a transparent screen, playing with the illusion of time and space.

Performed at Les Voutes in 2006. Organized by Lightcone Paris.

Paper Landscape plays with the illusory space within the screen by working directly with the material of the screen. A live performance is played off against a filmed record of a past event.

It starts with the projector illuminating a transparent polythene screen. Behind the screen stands the performer/filmmaker who applies white paint to the polythene. As a result the film image is revealed; it shows the same performer slowly tearing up a paper screen of the same size, to reveal a landscape. With the live performer gradually walling himself in behind a layer of white paint, the attention of the audience turns increasingly to the image of landscape projected onto this surface, and to the illusory performer who demonstrates the nature of deep space by running into the distance until he has merged with the landscape. Finally the confines of the cinema space are dramatically reaffirmed as the live performer slices the screen and steps through into the space that the audience occupies. LINK: Youtube