Camoufleurs
Video projection | colour | stereo sound | 2.35:1 aspect ratio | 23.98 fps | duration 9'30" (seamless Loop)
An 'army' of idle underage soldiers pass the time by popping the air trapped within sheets of bubble wrap plastic—a group action aurally reminiscent of machine gunfire. A bombing raid heard in the distance leads each soldier to pause and reflect upon its source. The subsonic explosions are only a simulated echo; an auditory deceleration of the shrill bursts generated through their previous activity with the bubble plastic. As the loop point within the video is hidden, there is no beginning or end to this recurring pattern of behaviour. The constantly rotating 360-degree view references 19th-century cycloramic painting installations such as the French Artist Paul Philippoteaux's depiction of the Battle of Gettysburg—a work seen to anticipate the immersive qualities of IMAX theatre. Camoufleurs investigates the nature of conflict from alternate angles including the establishment of imaginary adversaries as a form of play from early childhood. As camouflage aims to present an image of an uninhabited landscape—an illusion of Terra Nullius—the work also aims to provoke reflection upon colonisation and the purported 'invisibility' of the original figures within the Australian landscape.
Geordie Miller Sound Design
Sam Hillary as the soldier
Essays by Ashley Crawford and Shaun Wilson
Exhibitions & Screenings include
2014 [MARS] Gallery Black Box
2015 Conflicted: Adversaries in Art THG Gallery
2017 Sublime/Internal/Subliminal Limassol Cyprus