Vanishing Point

Vanishing Point explores the disjointed gaps and hybrid spaces opened up by the transfer of mechanical representations of space/time to digital formats. By floating in and out of a screen’s physical borders, a projected frame suspends the progress of an onscreen character at the exact same point in the mid-distance, despite her clearly walking towards the camera. Human, celluloid and digital motion cancel each other out, trapping the figure in a weightless 'between' world.

The  film clips used in my work often involve characters caught in states between life and death. This work uses the final scene from The Third Man (1949), when Anna walks away from the funeral of her lover (Harry Lime) and out of the frame, at which point the film itself comes to an end. In this looping digital reanimation Anna is forever caught between these two endings.

In a sense the entire narrative arc of The Third Man inhabits a similar limbo space - starting with Harry's faked funeral and ending with his real one. His unwitting 'friend' Holly (the character shifting in and out of the screen) acts as the narrative thread, guiding the viewer between these states.