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Simon Faithfull
Jane Watt talks to Simon Faithfull about the development of his practice and residencies including Artsway, Triangle and the Artists in Antarctica Fellowship.
Simon Faithfull's work oscillates between the micro and macroscopic. His film 30Km, commissioned by the Film and Video Umbrella in 2003 and shown at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth, and Pump House Gallery, London, perhaps best captures the spirit of his work. The circular projection begins with a close up of Faithfull's face, arms outstretched towards the lens as he gets the camera ready. He lets go of the equipment and we, the viewers, float away quickly. The round image that we see rotates to create a dizzy snapshot view of earth, with the artist a mere dot in the frame ' eventually the film ends with brief glimpses of the curve of the earth against black space. Faithfull used a weather balloon, satellite navigation and microwave transmitter to send the image back to earth. The camera and balloon were lost. What remains, back on terra firma, is a record of the artist and field disappearing into the distance at an alarming rate, in a rhythmic rotation that is hypnotic and quite dizzily disconcerting.
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