I first saw Richard Mosse’s work in the Venice Biennale 2013, he was representing the Irish pavilion. He, and two other men, travelled to the congo to film the tragic daily lives the people there have. His film is pink as he used an old surveillance camera, which picked up infrared, transforming the green Congo to shades of lavender and pink. The infrared film picks up things that are often hidden, which was why he chose to film in the Congo. Many do not realise the constant bloodshed and loss of lives that happens there daily. He was making the unseen seen.
He posed as a journalist and was able to be amongst armed groups. Mosse shot different aspects of the Congo: women doing washing, death, haunting lives of the soldiers, landscapes and camps. He successfully combines the horrors of these people’s lives, with the beauty of the Congo through a pink hue. This creates a problem for the audience, as they question themselves on how they should react to this.
In the installation room that you walk into there are 6 huge screens hanging at random distances at different angles. Each screen has a film being projected on it. Most of the times different aspects of their lives are being played, but as something striking happens, like the death of someone, the films all start to link up and just have that playing, and then slowly the again play different things. There is a little audio to it, but it is not in accordance to the films, as it has to work with everything being played in there.
It was great how immersed you become within the films when they are all playing around you, you cannot get away from what is happening. The audience becomes part of the piece, you are there in that moment. I feel that this type of display would work well in relation to my practice. It would help reinforce the deception as to what’s happening and where they are. I don’t think I would necessarily have lots of different aspects in one film, but rather have one particular aspect for one film and something different from the next. The only problem I have is space! I would not be able to have 6 massive projections playing. In an installation room I could probably get away with 3, maybe 4. However, I could try smaller projections on suspended A0 sheets of paper and see how that works.
He posed as a journalist and was able to be amongst armed groups. Mosse shot different aspects of the Congo: women doing washing, death, haunting lives of the soldiers, landscapes and camps. He successfully combines the horrors of these people’s lives, with the beauty of the Congo through a pink hue. This creates a problem for the audience, as they question themselves on how they should react to this.
In the installation room that you walk into there are 6 huge screens hanging at random distances at different angles. Each screen has a film being projected on it. Most of the times different aspects of their lives are being played, but as something striking happens, like the death of someone, the films all start to link up and just have that playing, and then slowly the again play different things. There is a little audio to it, but it is not in accordance to the films, as it has to work with everything being played in there.
It was great how immersed you become within the films when they are all playing around you, you cannot get away from what is happening. The audience becomes part of the piece, you are there in that moment. I feel that this type of display would work well in relation to my practice. It would help reinforce the deception as to what’s happening and where they are. I don’t think I would necessarily have lots of different aspects in one film, but rather have one particular aspect for one film and something different from the next. The only problem I have is space! I would not be able to have 6 massive projections playing. In an installation room I could probably get away with 3, maybe 4. However, I could try smaller projections on suspended A0 sheets of paper and see how that works.