Materials:
Video
Physical Object Description:
Performer - Lynne Cocker; Camera - Bruno Brokken; Sound - John Scott. I look up ... I look down was a commission as part of Scotland’s Year of the Artist 2000 and was supported by the Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Cultural Enterprise, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee Public Art Programme and Skydive St Andrews.
A body falls gracefully through the air, kilometres from the earth, appearing to hover between falling, then rising again in a fluid dance that suspends and evades gravity. In I look up … I look down, the laws of science are dispelled as a figure is seen floating through the air without ever approaching the ground. Moving hypnotically around the camera, the body disorients any sense of up and down, its falling motion transforming, at one point, into an ascent, buffeted by the air, toward a passing plane. The endlessly looping motion of this falling body that is both trapped in space and freed by it, creates the illusion that the artist is able to control time and space, if only for a brief moment.
Dimensions:
2:30 minutes
Accession Number:
2005-69
Credit:
Purchased with funds from the National Collecting Scheme for Scotland which was originated and operated 2003-2006 by the Contemporary Art Society and supported by the National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council, 2005
Ownership history:
Purchased from the artist by the Contemporary Art Society, with funds from the National Collecting Scheme for Scotland supported by the National Lottery through the Scottish Arts Council,. 16 August 2005; presented to The McManus, Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum, 2005
