The photographic image haunts film and that's one of the reasons why film remains "in-between" - in-between photography and video, and perhaps also between painting and digital media.' Mark Lewis


Mark Lewis's work functions on many levels: it appears anti-Hollywood, anti-narrative and opposed to the temporal illusions of cinema, whilst establishing its own space and creating an alternative form of comprehensible narrative and illusion. In drawing liberally from film history, and in taking apart and re-assembling cinematic mechanisms and myths, Lewis helps renew our fascination with an idea, a scene, a fragment of cinematic memory. He considers his work as only partially cinema, but utilizes certain techniques and inventions used during cinema's history to create acute perception in the viewer.


For the International 2002, Lewis proposed two short films that would each address this question of the pictorial condition in film, referencing some of the very simple (but semiotically-complex) films of the Lumiere brothers. Owing much to the tradition of nineteenth-century Romanticism as expressed in paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Arnold Bocklin and others, both films appear to document a landscape beyond real time and place. They operate as simultaneous advertisements for tourism and the sublime. As such, they use the idea of arrival and departure as a motif- one reflective of Liverpool's history.


Algonquin Park, September (2001)
'It went very well and I was very pleased
with the crew, the location, the weather
conditions, and so on. Everything happened
as planned and we couldn't have asked for
more ideal conditions (beautiful steam
rising off the lake and so on).'
Email correspondence, 14 September 2001,
Mark Lewis


Shot on Super 35mm with 1:2:35 ratio (simulating cinemascope), Algonquin Park, September consists of a single still shot of a lake in North Ontario. Over time, an island emerges slowly from the mist and the light becomes gloriously seductive and filmic. A lone boat traces its way across the surface of the lake, from the right to the left of the screen. Nothing appears to happen. The film stops. Two minutes and forty-six seconds have elapsed. The sudden and unexpected ending recalls the Lumiere brothers' film A Boat Leaving the Harbour (c.1896).

Algonquin Park, Early March (2002) 'The park wardens, the police and all the other people we had to work with to make the project happen, are all very pleased to cooperate again. I made a total of three preliminary trips to the location to prepare for the shoot. The fourth visit in early March was to shoot the film. We spent six days on location, preparing for the shoot, including making the ice rink on the lake. We shot for three days, but one of the days was quickly washed out by rain and bad weather.'

E-mail correspondence, 18 April 2002, Mark Lewis
For this partner film, Lewis worked with the conventional terrestrial broadcast and video format ratio of 4:3. The film comprises a slow steady zoom out from the lake, except this time the season is deep winter as opposed to autumn, and the lake hosts hockey players and skaters on its frozen surface.


Eddie Berg and Jo McConigal

[LESS]
The photographic image haunts film and that's one of the reasons why film remains "in-between" - in-between photography and video, and perhaps also between painting and digital media.' Mark Lewis


Mark Lewis's work functions on many levels: it appears anti-Hollywood, anti-narrative and opposed to the temporal illusions of cinema, whilst establishing its own space and creating an alternative form of comprehensible narrative and illusion. In drawing liberally from film history, and in taking apart and re-assembling cinematic mechanisms and myths, Lewis helps renew our fascination with an idea, a scene, a fragment of cinematic memory. He considers his work as only partially cinema, but utilizes certain techniques and inventions used during cinema's history to create acute perception in the viewer.


For the International 2002, Lewis proposed two short films that would each address this question of the pictorial condition in film, referencing some of the very simple (but semiotically-complex) films of the Lumiere brothers. Owing much to the tradition of nineteenth-century Romanticism as expressed in paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, Arnold Bocklin and others, both films appear to document a landscape beyond real time and place. They operate as simultaneous advertisements for tourism and the sublime. As such, they use the idea of arrival and departure as a motif- one reflective of Liverpool's history.


Algonquin Park, September (2001)
'It went very well and I was very pleased
with the crew, the location, the weather
conditions, and so on. Everything happened
as planned and we couldn't have asked for
more ideal conditions (beautiful steam
rising off the lake and so on).'
Email correspondence, 14 September 2001,
Mark Lewis


Shot on Super 35mm with 1:2:35 ratio (simulating cinemascope), Algonquin Park, September consists of a single still shot of a lake in North Ontario. Over time, an island emerges slowly from the mist and the light becomes gloriously seductive and filmic. A lone boat traces its way across the surface of the lake, from the right to the left of the screen. Nothing appears to happen. The film stops. Two minutes and forty-six seconds have elapsed. The sudden and unexpected ending recalls the Lumiere brothers' film A Boat Leaving the Harbour (c.1896).

Algonquin Park, Early March (2002) 'The park wardens, the police and all the other people we had to work with to make the project happen, are all very pleased to cooperate again. I made a total of three preliminary trips to the location to prepare for the shoot. The fourth visit in early March was to shoot the film. We spent six days on location, preparing for the shoot, including making the ice rink on the lake. We shot for three days, but one of the days was quickly washed out by rain and bad weather.'

E-mail correspondence, 18 April 2002, Mark Lewis
For this partner film, Lewis worked with the conventional terrestrial broadcast and video format ratio of 4:3. The film comprises a slow steady zoom out from the lake, except this time the season is deep winter as opposed to autumn, and the lake hosts hockey players and skaters on its frozen surface.


Eddie Berg and Jo McConigal

PROJECT CREDITS:

Courtesy the artist, Patrick Painter Inc., Los Angeles and Galerie Cent-8, Paris

Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art International Exhibition 2002 in association with FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology) Supported by the Canadian High Commission.


With thanks to: Patrick Painter Inc., Los Angeles and Galerie Cent-8, Paris.


Algonquin Park, September Production: Cast: Richard Payne, Adam Traynor; Director of Photography: Brian Pearson; 1st Assistant Camera: Paul Begin; Stunt Coordinato: Richard Collier, Havoc Stunt Services International; Lifeguards: Mary Ellen Peace-Hall, Morven Barnes; Production Assistant: Malcolm Fraser; Producers: Fraser Robinson and Stacey DeWolfe.

Algonquin Park, Early March Production: Cast: Josh Bruner, Will Bruner, Andrew Candow, Brett Coon, Carly Dodgeson, Andrew Fisher, Chris Helgason-Roff, Brendon Jarrett, Michael Kirkpatrick, Mark Looker, Allan Maclean, Molly Morrin, Jessica Nairn, Ron Nairn, Meagan Nunn, Tom Nunn, John Peace-Hall, Matt Rice, Kyle Stone; Producer: Stacey DeWolfe; Director of Photography: Tony Geurin; 1st Camera Assistant: Paul Begin; Production Assistants: Allan Bradley, Bryan Burt, Michael Girard, Malcolm Fraser, Gregg Hunter, Matthew Hunwicks, James Jack, John Keough, Jorg Schmidt, Adam Traynor and John Yemen; Safety Coordinators: Richard Collier and Simon Northwood, Havoc Stunt Services International; Park Rangers: Brian Ostrokie and Paul Shalla; Consultant: Mary Ellen Peace-Hall; Dog Sleds: Peggy Billingsley, Venture Out Expeditions

[LESS]
PROJECT CREDITS:

Courtesy the artist, Patrick Painter Inc., Los Angeles and Galerie Cent-8, Paris

Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art International Exhibition 2002 in association with FACT (Foundation for Art & Creative Technology) Supported by the Canadian High Commission.


With thanks to: Patrick Painter Inc., Los Angeles and Galerie Cent-8, Paris.


Algonquin Park, September Production: Cast: Richard Payne, Adam Traynor; Director of Photography: Brian Pearson; 1st Assistant Camera: Paul Begin; Stunt Coordinato: Richard Collier, Havoc Stunt Services International; Lifeguards: Mary Ellen Peace-Hall, Morven Barnes; Production Assistant: Malcolm Fraser; Producers: Fraser Robinson and Stacey DeWolfe.

Algonquin Park, Early March Production: Cast: Josh Bruner, Will Bruner, Andrew Candow, Brett Coon, Carly Dodgeson, Andrew Fisher, Chris Helgason-Roff, Brendon Jarrett, Michael Kirkpatrick, Mark Looker, Allan Maclean, Molly Morrin, Jessica Nairn, Ron Nairn, Meagan Nunn, Tom Nunn, John Peace-Hall, Matt Rice, Kyle Stone; Producer: Stacey DeWolfe; Director of Photography: Tony Geurin; 1st Camera Assistant: Paul Begin; Production Assistants: Allan Bradley, Bryan Burt, Michael Girard, Malcolm Fraser, Gregg Hunter, Matthew Hunwicks, James Jack, John Keough, Jorg Schmidt, Adam Traynor and John Yemen; Safety Coordinators: Richard Collier and Simon Northwood, Havoc Stunt Services International; Park Rangers: Brian Ostrokie and Paul Shalla; Consultant: Mary Ellen Peace-Hall; Dog Sleds: Peggy Billingsley, Venture Out Expeditions