12 CIRCULAR WALKS: A SOLE FEMALE FIGURE IN THE LANDSCAPE This is a small collection of many films I have made in recent months, you can see the changes in seasons. All were made in the Forest of Dean.
Having been working on 180 degree panoramic drawings in pairs for a year, I have slipped easily into dealing with 360 degree stills and videos. They pull together much of my thinking about art from the past twenty years – issues about how we consume landscape, how we experience place, how we navigate places. I dealt with all of those things when creating prints, video installations and curating scattered-site exhibitions in cities and in outdoor contexts.
THE SOLE FEMALE FIGURE IN THE LANDSCAPE
This is a set of stills of me that I created in response to the tradition of the male sole figure, often seen standing in the landscape, I am doffing my cap to Caspar David Friedrich. Most of my landscapes are close to home, places I know well because I walk there often. I am not turning by back to the camera with grandiosity or awe for what I see, but to avoid the gaze of the 360 degree camera. It is like a God-eye, all seeing, all-knowing. I refuse it. As a woman, I have no desire to control or overpower nature, I am part of it. Many have gone before me with these thoughts, but none, to my knowledge, have attempted to come to terms with the overwhelming gaze of the 360 camera. When I first started to use it, I either featured as the centre of the imagery, or I hid. I am now finding a way to engage with it in a way that makes reference to other landscape traditions.
Carolyn Black 