Artist, Brad Borthwick contacted me to make a series of images embodying his ongoing art project called, "Not All Borthwicks Were Nobleman." Brad's project encompasses both sculpture and performance art. "My practice as an artist contextualizes past human circumstance within contemporary place, through attempts to partially re-create and reference methodologies in cultural production."
Earlier this fall, I found a location that fit really well with Brad's project. We spent three hours shooting there but I could have spent a week. Super fun working with Brad. He's a really talented artist. The production felt much like a commercial shoot. Working with an art director, scouting, lighting, costume, etc... Brad's calling this photographic series "Flodden: Prelude to 'Not All Borthwicks Were Noblemen'". There still are many more phases to this project. We're talking about a performance piece I would film and turn into an installation as part of his final works.
Here's what Brad had to say about our shoot. " The backdrop chosen for "Flodden..." remains photographic in its simulation of a built environment that crumbles away each day, unremittingly over the many cycles of social progress and decline. This space stages the attempt to sever the chord that binds me to a nostalgia for past qualities of place. I step into the non-descript – this canvas that is most basic in shrouding one’s exposure - and realize that only one option has been laid out before me. Upon tying the canvas around the waistline the chord at length is made tight and fully horizontal, and the longbow assumes its position within my posture. The inference made is that I must take aim upon the chord’s boundary and question the source of longing most prevalent in my direction with the sculptural."
Al
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