Negativeland, SP 8mm Film, 5 mins, mute, 2019

commission and presented at the museum of contemporary art (maco) in Oaxaca, Mexico, as part of empire ii. followed by further screenings internationally AND IN THE UK.

Negativeland, views the past, present and future through the prism of an anonymous plot of land.

excavated and burial like one moment, its outline changing as the view point cuts from a shadow of human form waving, though the silhouette of a window. to the swaying grasses of seasonal growth. both images soothing an inherent suggestion of ‘other-ness’ and the ever changing nuance of what may lay beneath the earth, hidden.

two consistently flickering White circular punch holes further mark each frame. Referencing an historical photographic practice used by the FSA in the 1930’s.

This trope, known as ‘to kill’, Was an action used as means to destroy negatives and prints that were deemed inferior.