Throughout the history of cinema, trains have been known as symbols of time and duration. Just as the stereoscopic image created a new multiple dimensional experience, so did the cinematic magic by introducing the photograph to an additional and forth dimension – Time. The Time element is present in the video Ballade to the Double – a journey story which was shot over one year on the railroad tracks of the New England Railroad Museum in Connecticut. It consists of a simultaneous projection of four channels; each channel depicts the exact same train ride in a different season of the year. The rides are projected alongside each other, allowing the viewer to witness the changes in time as if he travels on the train himself.
The train stops several times along the ride, due to an unforeseen interruption: a girl standing in the middle of the train tracks. Her actions trigger chain reactions that create linear acts across the four seasons. We witness her while she plays with an antique toy locomotive moving through the projections from winter to spring, or placing coins on the track, leaving them to deteriorate from season to season under the weight of the passing trains. On other scenes, the girl plays lonely tunes on folk instruments. The actions repeat across the four channels simultaneously, appear as clones/duplicates of themselves, and can be seen as a Rorschach imagery of each other.
From Ballade to the Double exhibition text.
For viewing Ballade to the Double, click here
