current exhibitions
Gallery
One
Gallery
Two
Gallery
Three
Gallery
Four
Night
Projection Window
CCP
Shop Space
11.07.2008—30.08.2008
Gallery 1
TIM SILVER
THE TUVALUAN PROJECT
A group of nine low-lying coral atolls and islands, Tuvalu is situated in the remote Pacific. The highest point reaches just two metres above sea level, and as such, the island, its people and their culture are threatened by rising sea levels caused by global warming. In recent years, journalists have descended on Funifati, the capital, when the 'king tide' hits annually in late February, to report on the 'front line of climate change'. In The Tuvaluan Project Silver presents a collision between the site of Tuvalu and Italian Cannibal Cycle films. This genre of exploitation films from the mid-1970s to early 1980s often featured illogical narratives and clichéd representations of foreign cultures in a surreal mix of travelogue, found footage and gore. Working with a cast of non-actors, Silver's constructed scenarios, with little interference into the locations or wardrobe, consist of a loose and sometimes illogical photo-narrative. The sequence of images, appearing as film frames, with a black band at the top and bottom of each image—a device that mimics widescreen DVD format, as Italian Cannibal Cycle movies now most commonly appear—are randomly ordered, with the order changing upon each installation, thus further contributing to the confusion of any narrative thread. Offering multiple interpretations but no conclusion, the artist invites audiences to bring their own imagination into play.
