Mirror II - Distance
AN EXPANDED CINEMA DIALOGUE BETWEEN STRANGERS, 2016
David Cotterrell (UK) & Ruwanthie de Chickera (LK)
Mirror II - Distance examines the distances between individuals who occupy, protect and work in worlds that they don’t really belong to.
The Diplomatic Enclave in Islamabad is a heavily gated expat community in the capital city of Pakistan. This enclave is cut off from the rest of the country by high walls and heavy security. Inside the enclave is a network of country and organisational compounds further barricaded from each other.
Entry into the enclave and entry into the various demarcated territories inside is monitored by local Pakistani guards. These men are privy to the culture, conversations and experiences of the international communities that they are responsible to protect.
In this piece, two Pakistani guards stand watch over the expat compounds. They observe each other from a distance as they listen to the visitors, experts and specialists discuss Pakistan, its people, and its future.
Using a cable mounted camera system, both forward and rear views are filmed simultaneously. This piece uses an experimental filming format called “collimation”, which manipulates perception to provide an illusion of depth.
This installation is part of the Mirror project, a series of two-screen works devised to provide insight into global communities that experience distancing and objectification.
BIO
David Cotterrell is one of Britain’s leading visual artists. He uses media and technology to explore the social and political tendencies of a world at once shared and divided. His work has been commissioned and shown extensively in Europe, the United States and Asia. He is Director of Research at the University of Brighton and is represented by Danielle Arnaud. Ruwanthie de Chickera, an Eisenhower Fellow, is a leading playwright, screenwriter and theatre director from Sri Lanka. Her award winning film Machan has been screened in over fifty countries. She is the Artistic Director of Stages Theatre Group, an ensemble theatre company that produces socially and politically conscious original Sri Lankan Theatre.