Eyes to See Nobody

Camouflage, movement and stillness in nature- interactions between performer, camera and audience forming an optical gameplay in Gibson/Martellis Ghillie (2005) and where the bears are sleeping (2011) as the role of the viewer shifts from being a hunter to being hunted, when they finally notice the figure, which may be watching them.
How do we relate to the image? We search the film image for elements, trying to find detail within it as a picture. The long duration of the shots suggests that we should look in a sustained way. However, the filmed image isn't composed according to the conventions of picture making with an obvious subject. Instead it is a two-fold construction, presenting three experiences of a geographical location and environment. The performer's experience, the cameraman's experience and the experience of the viewer are aligned by the films. But, then in each case, an emptying takes place through the experience of the Ghillie  camouflage suit, through the convention of the locked off camera and through the inscrutable nature of the final presentation. Perhaps the job of the artist is to reveal the untruth as much as the truth. We return due attention to nature-not a pre-imagined romantic nature, but a reconfiguration of nature and artifice together.