Kieran Boland

Camoufleurs (2014)

Video projection | colour | stereo sound | 2.35:1 aspect ratio | 23.98 fps | duration 9'30" infinite loop
Featuring Sam HILLARY Sound Design Geordie MILLER
Exhibited at [MARS] Gallery Black Box (2014)
Conflicted: Adversaries in Art THG Gallery (2015)
Sublime/Internal/Subliminal  Limassol Cyprus (2017)

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 in several ways, 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's intention is also to provoke reflection upon the historical effects of colonisation—a process which led to the 'invisibility' of the original figures within the Australian landscape.

Essays by
Ashley CRAWFORD
Shaun WILSON 

Trailer (Vimeo)