Field glasses

Field Glasses
2024
Video, looping

Image: film still

I was struck by a drawing by Degas of a woman at the races at the Impressionist drawing show at the Royal Academy. In it, unusually, a female character is actively watching, turning the gaze back us and is seeing us from a distance with the super vision afforded by the optical lenses. She is disguised by a dark costume, low hat and field glasses and holds an upright, triangular, steady and protective stance.

I reacreated the drawing in video, sketchily matching the costume from assorted items of clothing and using my grandfather’s field glasses which I had in the studio. The character moves very slightly and her gaze pinpoints the onlooker. LN