Hilary Lloyd makes video and slide installations presenting sequential images that draw attention to unnoticed details in everyday life. The technical equipment Lloyd uses to display images is made deliberately visible to form an integral part of the installation and to engage with the architecture of the surrounding space.
The installation Movie (2015) consists of three components: Movie, a single-screen projection, which combines raw and edited video footage alternating swiftly between static and moving imagery; Curtain of Circles, two cut-out curtains; and Stream of Circles, a fan that blows strips of fabric into the air. The camera travels across flowers, foliage, buildings, illuminated windowpanes and flaring streetlights, images that are interspersed with abstract shapes. The handmade curtains are perforated by circular apertures, evoking a traditional cinema décor and echoing the abstract shapes that appear in Movie. The film is projected just above floor level and recalls a physical drape with its downward flow. Overall, Movie is embracing the digital, yet referencing the analogue through the basic technology of its ‘props’ and the raw video footage. The work is visually seductive and with its flow of images and its saturated colours it seems as if we are watching a ‘moving painting’.
Leeds Art Gallery’s collection stream of sculpture in the extended field also involves acquisitions of moving image and soundwork. This also involves purchases of works that operate between painting and sculpture. Movie reflects the digital era in current artistic production, yet the work also has sculptural elements and a painterly sensibility that refer to the analogue world. With its flexible display conditions, Movie can form an interesting interplay with sculpture and paintings in the museum’s collection.
