Jim, Beatrix, Dan and Aruna
'Jim, Beatrix, Dan and Aruna' is one of a series of portraits of creative families. With this work I am principally exploring the traditional portraiture type pose through the medium of moving image to create what I call cinematic portraits that is at the intersection between photography and film. I imagine I'm capturing what might occur if the sitters were posing for a painting or photograph, with the subtle changes to their positions that can occur over extended periods of time. I enjoy the contemplative like visual spaces between stillness and movement, and the viewer interpreted narrative this may produce. I usually work intuitively at a location, in a small number of single takes and at fast frame speeds, so a selected entire take is used (therefore no edits just some post production adjustments). I also look for a prop element which has a continuous subtle motion, which in this particular instance is the boiling kettle.
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Lol SargentDirector
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Project Type:Documentary, Experimental, Short
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Runtime:6 minutes
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Completion Date:November 15, 2019
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Production Budget:0 USD
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Country of Origin:United Kingdom
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Country of Filming:United Kingdom
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Shooting Format:Digital
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Lol studied MA Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, then was a Senior Research Fellow in Audio Visual, during which time he began exhibiting his projection and sound installation works at various UK and European spaces and events, including London venues; The Air Gallery, The Diorama Arts, The Piccadilly Film Festival at BAFTA, and the International Mystery Film Festival in Venice, and later created projection works for a number of contemporary dance collaborations performing at The Dance Umbrella London, the Third Eye Centre Glasgow, and at the Berlin Arts Festival. Also during that time (from 1986) Lol was Tutor of Audio Visual Production at the RCA and finally Tutor of Time Based Arts (until 1999), and was made a Fellow of the RCA in 1991. Alongside his MA teaching he continued to create fine art installation projects, including in 1993, 'Vinyl Requiem' a major UK Arts Council funded projection and sound work in collaboration with turntable artist/composer Philip Jeck, which was performed in London, Gent and Hamburg, and won the 1993 Time Out London Dance & Performance Award for Best Site Specific Event. In 2014 he and Jeck embarked on a 21st anniversary tour (‘Vinyl Requiem (Replayed)') as a large-scale digital projection with live accompaniment by Jeck. In 2016 Lol returned to teaching at the RCA as a visiting lecturer on the new established MA Digital Direction course. His ‘Procreation: Adam and Eve’ installation was exhibited at the 2019 Venice Biennale and in 2020 at the Time and Timelessness Festival in Alderburgh UK and the diptych film version won Best Senior Director at the 2022 London Director Awards. His short film (moving portrait) 'Peter, Shirley and Louis' was long listed for the 2020 Lumen Prize Digital Art moving image prize, won Best Director at the 2021 Amsterdam World International Film Festival and long listed for the 2022 Aesthetica Art Prize.
I regard my current work as experimental moving image, and presently I am exploring the realm of portraiture and the study of the human form within spaces, how short narratives can be presented, explored and develop which are open to interpretation by the viewer. I think of my films more as scenes or extended moments. I am interested in expanding the perception of moving image so that is considered with the similar type feelings and emotions such as painting or photography might offer the viewer, and through digital display based exhibiting have a desire to make the moving image into a more tangible, desirable type of artwork, perhaps as a new type hybrid genre I call 'Tangital'. I am passionate about moving image both as a collective cinematic experience and in a gallery or public space presented situation.