Kate Woods

Non-Sites (2012)

1 min 16 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

Non-Sites is based on the photographs of Kate Woods in collaboration with National Park (Steffen Kreft and Paul Neason). The work shows found photographs of scenes around Aotearoa—sunsets, mountains, rocky rivers, and rolling hills—some of which have been hand-coloured in the style of the 1950s and '60s. Crystalline forms appear over the top of these landscapes, creating patterns, appearing, and disappearing, as the camera swings to focus on another photograph. Sometimes the image peals back or crumples up to reveal the landscape underneath, referencing their original life as analogue photos.

Over the past six years I have been photographing set-up scenes. Through these constructed photographs I have been investigating the documentary photography of '60s and '70s Land Art in the way some of the images tend to give the sense of a non-space, or at least a space that can never be physically accessed, as it may not exist anymore. I have been interested in critiquing the documentation of these sites by making a series of ‘real’ places look constructed or vice versa. These investigations have been paired with an interest in found images. Places you will never physically arrive in yet seem familiar. The format of film has furthered these investigations by adding time as a factor which gives the artists an opportunity to explore further an interest in the documentation of temporal works, which no longer exist, such as Oppenheim's Whirlpool (Eye of the Storm), 1973.

Artist's statement

Other works by Kate Woods

CIRCUIT is the
leading voice
for artist moving image
practice
in Aotearoa New Zealand,
distributing works,
critical review and
dialogues
which reflect our unique, contemporary
South Pacific context.