Smoke,
2004 DVD 12 Min
SMOKE, consists of seven carefully crafted pieces that collectively comprise a unique visual album.
'We are all full to the brim with memories, which flash upon the
inward eye and disappear as suddenly; they are chimeras, and change
form and emphasis and content at each recall; they are as illusory
and insubstantial as the smoke which drifts from a cigarette.
The richness of Nicola Atkinson. Davidson’s DVD ‘Smoke’
is that such tantalising fragments of experience similarly start
and finish without warning, and completely occupy our attention.
We watch intently because there is no preconception. The excitement
is in the uncertainty, and we have questions about ourselves as
well. Are we the camera? Are these our memories, recalled without
warning?
And what can one say about the precise timing of each fragment,
and the framing of each scene? They are the true creators of the
dynamic tension which holds our attention throughout. And too, consider
the impact of the one voiced word in the whole sequence. Because
it seems addressed to us personally, it shocks us into considering
whether we are part of the recorded scene, and not observers.
Nowhere is the oft turned phrase ‘Less is more’, more apposite than here, where human experience is encompassed with the slightest of means. If ‘Smoke’ persuades us to look at the mystery of the world around us with the cool intensity shown here, then it will have succeeded triumphantly.'
Peter Allam
Sponsors :- The National Endowment for Science, Techonlogy and the Arts
