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Sam Hamilton & Eve Gordon, film still from Blue Tide, Black Water, 2008.

 

Sam Hamilton & Eve Gordon

15 December 2008 - 11 January 2009 in the Square² Gallery

Blue Tide, Black Water 2008
DVD
duration: 9 minutes, 20 seconds, looped
Courtesy of the artists

Blue Tide, Black Water is an extended inquiry into microscopic chemical reactions, an epic in miniature. Recording the exposure of wax and liquid chemicals to bright light, the film uncovers a microcosmic environment where endlessly random reactions unfold, a lush primordial soup. The universe revealed has its own animated and changing complex topographic landscapes, its own micro-ecology, and its own soundscape. On a larger scale, or parallel dimension, the title makes reference to current growth in algal blooms.

Filmmakers Sam Hamilton and Eve Gordon ‘discovered’ this place through their experimentation with a broken 16mm film projector, and the reactive properties of basic materials around them. Their project became an investigative documentary, hypothesizing a landscape made up of these blossoming reactions, and considering the sounds each may produce. ‘Imagining what kind of sound these images could have, as if each random burst of patterns also cast forth a rippling vibration, we began experiencing the possible ecology presented.’ The circumnavigation of this minuscule universe becomes the film’s narrative, a hypnotic sequence of liquid colour and sound.

Blue Tide, Black Water was derived from a live16mm film performance by The Parasitic Fantasy Band, Sam and Eve’s collaborative performance duo. Together they have performed throughout New Zealand and Australia, in addition to curating experimental film events, most recently FPS Live Cinema Event! for the 40th Auckland International Film Festival. Their projects range from live multi-16mm projector performances to site specific installations and short films, and their experimental films have been produced in festivals in the United States, Europe and the UK. Eve also works as an actor, producer, aerialist and costume-maker in film and theatre, while Sam is a sonic and film artist and musician, whose work often involves collaboration with a diverse range of scientists, musicians and artists. Both artists are Auckland based.