Tearing

In October 1999 PhotoWorks invited myself and Marysia Lewandowska to undertake a residency in the Design Council Archive.

At its heart, the Design Council Archive stores the information shadows of objects – a vast photographic collection, press articles, films, advertising, teaching materials, minutes of the Council’s meetings, annual reports, government correspondence and memoranda, leaflets and ephemera.

After a year of research, a project emerged. Documents took the form of a series of encounters with the archive, comprising an exhibition, publication, web-browser [unfortunately no longer available] and conference.

Tearing, was a component of the exhibition, a film that explores the materiality, violence and the missing from the idea of the archive, while literally embodying those themes.

Tearing is part of the Filmoteka collection at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw.

It was also screened as part of Image/Text at Tate Modern, London 2006. 

Related projects include Documents, the Enthusiasts Archive and Screen Tests