A View From A Hill

Visual Artwork Project

On 13th May Ben Teasdale, a former student at the School of Art & Design when it was based at White Cross, arrived at the former ski slope on Main Site armed with a box full of reels of film removed from VHS video cassettes, about 300 which he had about the house but which were now to be sacrificed to the creation of a vision which Ben had nurtured for some time.

The initial project was to create a visual artwork that resembled a visual environment, i.e. a cinema screen, created entirely from VHS videotape, a material solely associated with visual media. Ben together with Barry Crane John Vallance and Kenny Roberts, support crew in the School of Art & Design, spent hours traversing the chosen area threading the video tape between the trees to arrive at the finished creation which had from time to time looked like it might be blown away into the scenery by a strong breeze which sprung up as the height grew & the lads were having to reach up high off ladders. Basically, placing this unnatural and synthetic piece in the natural surroundings of grass and trees emphasised the contradiction of producing an opaque ‘screen’ made up entirely of millions of images captured on the tape, however, when affected by the wind and sun the piece really came to life offering a unique light and sound show that beckoned the viewer to interact with the work by listening, feeling and even climbing inside.

LMC art students were given talks by Ben in the weeks leading up to the final project. He discussed with them the way an idea is developed from initial stages to final production covering aspects such as proposals, mock-ups, permission, materials, etc. The students were then invited on the day to record the work through sketches, photographs and videos and also to assist in the construction of the work by helping to wrap the videotape between the trees. This was all designed to tie in with their own coursework and to give them a taste of the process involved with creating a major art project.