Clinton Watkins

14 December 2009 - 10 January 2010 in the Square² Gallery

Noir Wave #1–#2 2009
DVD 4:3 video loop & sound
Duration: 2:30 minutes, looped
Courtesy of Two Rooms Gallery

Noir Wave #1–#2 uses experimental video distortion technology, producing an image we can discern, but strain to interpret. A black and white figure appears almost as if trapped inside the screen space, as if warped or caught between one frame and the next. Film noir and New Wave cinema is evoked in motifs such as kitten heeled women’s shoes, and the chic bob haircuts of the era. Yet the conventional hardboiled1950s Hollywood crime drama is disrupted, the sound does not seem to match the images, and we are left to try and establish a narrative from a series of disconnected scenes.

The artist employs a modification technique called ‘circuit bending’ which corrupts the signals of obsolete video editing hardware. Live sound disrupts the video signal, and the original sequence of the footage. Frames are suspended and fragmented with noise, sine waves and acoustic sound, generating a re-interpretation of the original recording. Rather than a melodramatic plot-driven film noir we are offered a visually alluring but disjointed scenario that requires we put together the story.

Clinton Watkins (b.1976) holds a Masters of Fine Art (First Class Honors) from Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland, where he is currently working towards a Doctoral Degree in Fine Arts. He is a practicing sound artist in the area of minimal electronic music and sound scores/design for film, live sound performance and installations, with numerous releases of recorded material on a variety of local and international record labels. His video based projects are completed by their soundtracks.

Recent installations include Stride – Light, Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland; Avalanche #2, 2009 Waikato Art Awards, Waikato Museum of Art & History; Line & Tone, Hirschfeld Gallery, Berlin; Line & Tone video & sound performance, H.S.P. Gallery, Christchurch, Auckland Art Gallery, Maidment Theatre, Auckland; Split, Clinton Watkins, Richard Francis & Adam Willets, 7" 45rpm record edition 150, Dungeon Taxi Records NZ; Cont Ship #3 & Horizon line #1, video/sound solo exhibition, Two Rooms Gallery, Auckland; Untitled (Sparkler), Crosstalk, Two Rooms, Auckland; Cont Ship #2, video/sound installation, Martini Shot: New Artist