Brief

Artworks that bring to life the magic of movies:

These three hand crafted pieces - ‘A Trick Of The Light’, ‘Where Every Moment Shines’ and ‘Kiss Of The Screen Gods’ form part of a Heritage Trail in Leavesden Country Park.

We approached the project with a spirit of curiosity, wanting the audience to participate in the sets we created, with a final movie trick: the magic of black and white. All three pieces playfully use shades of black, white and grey.

A trick of the light

The magic of “A Trick Of The Light” is only fully experienced when the wheel is turned and the still images of Charlie Chaplin come to life. Inspiration was taken from the zoetrope and praxinoscope, two of the earliest machines to bring the still picture to life, to create this engaging experience.

Carved in Granite with the stainless steel moving mechanism fabricated by Base metalwork Ltd. It contains a series of still film images, that a touch of the finger can start spinning and if you then look through the slots the images begin to move. By means of this primitive device, you see two figures walking off down the road, taking you with them into the land of the movies and adventure.

WHERE EVERY MOMENT SHINES

This artwork creates the illusion of a film set in which to sit. A white circular dais bearing a single suitcase carved in white marble, sits in the spotlight. Alongside this, edged in black steel a second dais, out of the spotlight holds an iconic director’s chair, setting the scene for the performance, focus and direction associated with movie-making.

It invites two friends walking through the park stop for a rest. One sits on the suitcase, the other the chair, considering the scene with a myriad of different roles and worlds to dream of. Someone gets their picture taken. The magic is sustained because movie-making creates a world apart, charged with energy, resulting in a space in which anything that happens feels significant. 

KISS OF THE SCREEN GODS

A classic moment from the movies - the magic lives on in the mind along with the memory of watching these gods at play. Larger than life, never ageing, lit with an inner light, the beings who grace the silver screen are immortals whose lives seem so much more real than our own. And yet, there is nothing to them but arrangements of light and shade. 

A monument to the screen kiss can be seen on a hill in the park. Above a pedestal of sandstone, carved like a column for a Greek god, two shining profiles meet. Screen idols locked in a kiss, oblivious to our existence. But, from the side their faces disappear - all that is visible is the edge of a flat image. Gone too is the grandeur of the carved stone column. Everything in the movies is an illusion.