PROCREATION: Adam and Eve (installation)

'A man and a woman appear at each end of a space and stand motionless not understanding why they are there as they contemplate each other’s form. Slowly they begin to walk toward each other. The woman holds something, which when they meet she offers to the man, then momentarily merge into one another. They part and walk away from each other, neither understanding what they have just done...'

This work is a two channel two (facing each other) screen projection installation of a contemporary moving portrait interpretation of the ancient story of Adam and Eve, created in response to 'Myth and Logic'; one of a number of proposed themes for the exhibition 'Alive in the Universe, held at the 2019 Venice Biennale and shot on location in a C15th Palazzo in Venice, where it was installed. It plays as a continuous loop experience with 4 channels of ambient type audio.

It is designed for we (the viewer/s) to stand between the screens so that the figures of Adam and Eve walk toward, then seem to pass through us as they couple, suggestive of we how are all supposedly born of these two people, and thus we being there at the moment of our conception. The apple (symbolic of the 'sin' of the procreation) is passed from Eve to Adam. I regard this as a 4D cinema type work.

  • Lol Sargent
    Director
  • Nick Wood
    Lighting Camera
  • Iacopo Cotalini
    Key Cast
    "Adam"
  • Silvia Barbisan
    Key Cast
    "Eve"
  • Caroline Wiseman
    Curators
  • David Baldry
    Curators
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short, Other
  • Runtime:
    3 minutes 37 seconds
  • Production Budget:
    0 GBP
  • Country of Origin:
    United Kingdom
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Shooting Format:
    Nikon DSLR
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 'Alive in the Universe', 2019 Venice Biennale
    Venice
    Italy
    May 28, 2019
    Premiere
  • 2020 Time and Timlessness Festival
    Aldeburgh
    United Kingdom
    February 17, 2020
Director Biography - Lol Sargent

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 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. His short film 'Peter, Shirley and Louis' was long listed for the 2020 Lumen Prize Digital Art moving image prize, finalist in the 2021 Golden Film Short Festival, won a bronze in the 2021 Latitude Film Awards and Best Director in the Amsterdam World International Festival 2021.

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Director Statement

I regard my work as experimental moving image, and presently I am principally exploring the realm of portraiture (making moving portraits) and the study of the human form within spaces, how short narratives can be presented, explored and develop, and be 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 a painting or photograph 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. I am passionate about moving image both as a collective cinematic experience and in gallery presented type situations.