Simon Faithfull: Going Nowhere series
Modern Art Oxford
Thursday 13th – Friday 21st September 2018
Going Nowhere is a trilogy of films produced by artist Simon Faithfull that span a 20-year period. The film series centres on the act of walking to explore our personal engagement with the environment, the trace we leave on the landscape, and how we can understand and appreciate the dynamics of our rapidly changing world.
Simon Faithfull, Going Nowhere 1, 1995, 7 minutes, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Polaris, Paris
A figure walks away from the camera through a landscape of drifting snow and finally disappears slowly into the distance. The light changes with the passing clouds, birds flit by and it becomes apparent that the camera has been left on its own in an empty field. Going Nowhere 1 is an attempt to witness an absence - to check if the world still exists when I'm not there.
Simon Faithfull, Going Nowhere 1.5, 2016, 9 minutes, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Polaris, Paris
This short, silent film presents a walk through a landscape at the bottom of the Adriatic Sea. A figure in jeans and shirt, walks purposefully away from the camera and steps laboriously through a landscape of fish, rocks and watery light. How he is able to walk ten meters beneath the surface of the sea, or where he is actually going are not clear, but he seems to have an objective or a path that he is following.
Simon Faithfull, Going Nowhere 2, 2011, 5 minutes, courtesy of the artist and Galerie Polaris, Paris
Filmed from high up in the air, a tiny figure is seen walking around the perimeter of a small island, alone in a vast sea. As the tide rises the sandbank-island shrinks and the circles walked by the figure grow smaller and smaller. Eventually the rising waters erase the dry land and the figure has vanished into an empty sea and sky.
A special screening of Going Nowhere 2 accompanied by a music playlist selected by Faithfull based around the theme of walking will be on view in the cafe throughout the preview night for Future Knowledge (Friday 21st September, 6:30- 9pm). The playlist is also available via Modern Art Oxford’s Spotify account.