Solstice by Neeta Madahar

About

Marking the summer solstice, Neeta Madahar's film installation immerses the audience into the ever-changing midsummer and midwinter skies. Solstice comprises two high-definition film projections, each with an orchestral soundtrack, exploring time, memory and the cyclical patterns of nature. Shot in a rural landscape in Wiltshire on the solstices of December 2006 and June 2007, Madahar captures the daily rotation of the Earth, which creates the appearance of stars circling around the North Star. In the night segments, light trails illustrate the movement of the stars. The films create a visual record of the passage of time; time is no longer abstract - what has occurred seconds, minutes and hours before is fixed in an image, to be experienced simultaneously. Solstice considers the day as both a lived experience and a unit of time defined by celestial changes. Film composer Miguel D'Oliveira provides provides two inter-related orchestral soundtracks fro Solstice, to help create an all-encompassing experience, evoking the sensation of summer heat or the chill of a winter night. The music was recorded by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The exhibition also includes the series: Falling, a video animation and photographs of falling sycamore seeds suspended in time; Cosmoses a group of large-scale photograms of origami cosmos flowers whilst Sustenance, displayed in Pitzhanger Manor-House, shows dream-like photographs of various species of feeding birds. Each series look at the natural world and investigate the ambiguity between what is real or found as opposed to what is constructed. The notion of chance and unrepeatable events are evident throughout Neeta Madahar's work. Solstice is commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella and Harewood House Trust in association with aspex, Portsmouth, supported by Arts Council England. Neeta Madahar is represented by Purdy Hicks Gallery, London