Andrew Carnie’s slide-dissolve installations tell stories that reflect upon our understanding of the workings of the human body. The sequential nature of the work in Slices & Snapshots is rooted in his fascination with the historically pioneering work of photographer Eadweard Muybridge and in contemporary chronophotography – the use of photographic sequencing in modern scientific analysis.
Andrew Carnie’s slide-dissolve installations tell stories that reflect upon our understanding of the workings of the human body. In the darkened gallery space layered images appeared and disappeared on suspended screens, the developing display absorbing the viewers into an expanded sense of space and time through the slowly unfolding narratives that evolved before them.
Slices & Snapshots is a collection of slide-dissolve works, the core elements of which are pairs of projectors set at opposite ends of a space, each casting sequences of images onto the layers of semi-translucent screens suspended between them. Narratives are created over time through images that surface onto the screens and then dissolve into slides projected from the other side.
The sequential nature of Carnie’s work is rooted in his joint fascination with the historically pioneering work of photographer Eadweard Muybridge and in contemporary chronophotography – the use of photographic sequencing in modern scientific analysis.
Contemporary science uses chronophotography to develop an understanding of the different biological functions of the body. Photographs, for example, are taken over time using fluorescent proteins, then combined into sequences, creating quick-time movies that act as tools for viewing the developing human form: the cells of the brain moving into their working position or muscle cells viewed ‘swimming’ to prescribed destinations. An understanding of the controls that influence these movements is reached by altering chemical concentrations and observing the diverse results.
‘Modern scientific imaging is affecting how we perceive ourselves and developing new notions of ‘self’ through techniques like MRI and CT scanning, X-rays and Ultrasound. Taking these scientific techniques as a source, I attempt to provide a wider resonance, my work existing in the mediating world of the mind – somewhere between raw scientific data and our condition as human beings’.
Andrew Carnie
2004 marks the centenary of the death of Eadweard Muybridge. Through his investigations into physical movement, Muybridge is considered one of the earliest scientific photographers as well as a pioneer of modern cinema. With this exhibition Carnie paid homage to the photographer, his life, his times and the compelling imagery he created.
Carnie’s work was the focus for the pilot edition of Paper, a graphic project that provides contemporary artists and designers with a flexible space for presenting work that expands beyond the walls of the gallery.