Description
Closer is a four-minute continuous take with a drone camera. The shot begins high in the sky looking down from a bird’s eye view at what appears to be a field or a painting or a tapestry. Holding this position for a few seconds, the camera then makes a steady, slow descent. As it comes closer to the ground, we realize someone (the artist) is lying on their back in a field. As the camera approaches, the sound of crickets can be heard. The drone continues its descent until within arms reach of the artist. She looks directly at the camera, sits up and taking deliberate action, she grabs the camera. The view swings from the artist to the sky ending the video.
Statement
Closer is a short meditation on the interplay between the body, the landscape, and the dynamics of surveillance. Beginning with a view of abstract colours, lines and texture of a cultivated field, flattened by the bird’s eye view perspective, it could almost be a painting or a weaving. As the camera slowly descends, it takes over a minute for viewers to realize that there is something in the centre of the frame that is not part of the landscape. At this point, our perception shifts from an overall view, to focus on wanting to discover what the form in the field could be. It is only when the camera has completed two thirds of its descent to the ground, that we can really make out the figure hidden in the foliage. For a moment we wonder if she has fallen. For the artist, being dwarfed in the landscape is a reminder that, “We are so small, we are nothing.”
For Karen, this final moment encapsulates the central tension of the work: the relationship between the observed and the observer. The drone, a symbol of impersonal surveillance, is rendered vulnerable by her act of seizing control. This action is both a declaration of agency and a subversion of the presumed power dynamics between the camera and its subject. The gentle yet decisive act of catching the drone reclaims autonomy, transforming surveillance into an intimate interaction. Closer is both a personal gesture and a universal statement, confronting the power dynamics embedded in the act of looking.
Don Goodes & Karen Trask, 2024