Shadow Trap

‘Shadow Trap was concieved as a companion piece to the live film performance Light Trap. In Light Trap action is taken to remove all emulsion from completely developed black film loops; Shadow Trap operates in reverse – a film created by the application of film emulsion ‘dust’ to a clear base. In a way Shadow Trap is a documentary – a record of previously executed actions – an exibition of the evidence. I also regard it as a found footage film, where material from one film is re-presented and re-examined in another. In this case the re-presented material has been subjected to extreme abrasion and eroded to dust. I was also excited by the notion of reducing the base unit of film language to a level below that of the classical single frame, where frames are ‘atomised’ and we start to examine the building blocks of film. The image as sound / sound as image crossover also mirrors the audio element in Light Trap (where a live scratch sound track is created) . Using the inherent sound technology of 35mm projectors I can play back surround sound audio (sound which is created by the image) and over which I have very limited control.’ GP