Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Teesside University
Sunday
Film Installation Series for Exhibition
Haillay founded the independent production company Third Films with Duane Hopkins in 2001. 'Sunday' is an installation research piece exhibited in gallery spaces which investigates the possibilities of creating multi-platform film projects. However it also represents a stand-alone series of works that begin to breach the divide between black-box and white-cube showing spaces. This was an investigation into how, by way of a connected off-shoot project, film might exist in a gallery context. 'Sunday' was born from a short film 'Field' (2001) that Thirdfilms had previously made and demonstrates that material shot for one format can successfully exist in another. The film installation was so successful that 'Sunday' has exhibited in three different continents and continues to be a point of interest in its various configurations.
The format of each individual work within 'Sunday' is that of a succession of moving image portraits. The configuration of 19 screens presents a changing sequence of juxtapositions. One configuration combines three images horizontally; creating a single extreme widescreen aspect-ratio that is at once epic and intimate. The portrait shots are influenced by classical painting and explore the connection between the individual and the natural world. The shots are not narrative-driven and create a layered texture and an immersive experience. The dislocation between portrait and landscape is both familiar and eerie: a place where serenity and anxiety are equally present.
From this research Haillay has gone on to develop projects that can be seen in more than one context, engaging different audiences: gallery ‘black-box’/site-specific installation, cinema/DVD, art publications etc. 'Sunday' proves the market for installation works born from a cinematic narrative. Allowing for a single topic to be discussed in several mediums under a single banner. In this context in 2010 Haillay co-produced Gillian Wearing’s feature debut 'Self Made' distributed by Cornerhouse Artists Films.
