Kelly Richardson Leviathan, 2011
Kelly Richardson Leviathan, 2011
Kelly Richardson creates large-scale immersive video installations of extraordinary landscapes. Combining the real and the imagined, she starts by filming real landscapes and then uses digital technology to distort and change the images. These eerie environments, entirely devoid of people, invite viewers to ‘insert themselves into the work’ and become its sole protagonists. As she explains, ‘I’m trying to create contemplative places which are both beautiful and mesmeric, but at the same time, unsettling.’
Exhibition specifications
Leviathan was made during a residency at Artspace, San
• This work is a 3-channel HD video.
Antonio. It was filmed on Caddo Lake in a town called Un-
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cypress trees in their swamp environment. Richardson
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Running time: 20 minutes, 2.1 audio, 16.9 PAL Three freestanding walls or screens are needed, ideally 4.85 x 2.75m for the trees to appear at the correct size. The screens should be on the floor and projections should be edge to edge with no obvious hardware visible. If it is projected onto walls, they need to be painted with Rosco white paint. Blackout is required and ideally the floor should have some reflective quality to create an immersive experience so that the water appears to extend into the space.
There is no hire fee for this project. As well as installation and deinstallation costs, we ask venues to cover insurance and transport costs.
certain in Texas and shows the region’s indigenous bald digitally enhanced the composition to create a series of twisting, snake-like tendrils of yellowish light in the water and has replaced the sounds of nature with an ominous soundtrack. Through her manipulation, she seems to allude to a creature or alien energy beneath the swamp waters. The title, Leviathan, has several textural references, including the serpent sea monster from the Bible, who is the gatekeeper to hell, and a 1989 sci-fi film of the same name. Lake Caddo has the dubious claim to having the world’s first over-water oil well, and the references implied in the work take on added meaning in the wake of more recent environmental disasters.
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