THE GROTTO FILM
The film Painting Experiments from a Virtual Studio, otherwise known as The Grotto Film, is a montage of films of early virtual painting sketches made in Tilt Brush over a year. It was installed as part of the Paint Park exhibition at MK Gallery Project Space during February 2020.
This moving image film was projected onto The Grotto Painting, a 10 panel painting (decaptych), which maps the processes of painting, both physical and digital (phygital), through its own making process.
The silk on panel no.6 remains intentionally unfixed allowing it to be animated by a fan. This treatment refers to the 5th century BC painting competition between Zeuxis and Parrhasius. This coincides with the film, which includes footage of an experiment filmed in my studio of another silk draped over a painting stretcher that is placed on an easel, moved by a fan and projected onto. At certain points in the film, a silk curtain moves and it prompts us to ask where exactly is that curtain, is it in the studio or in the MK gallery project Space?
Included below are two versions of the film, one filmed under UV light allowing the paint panels to fluoresce, and one without, allowing the viewer to compare/choose.