This Surface

Directed by Tony Sinden

This surface and Edge [also being screened in this programme] are two of 5 Films (View, This surface, Actor, Edge, Between) made by David Hall and Tony Sinden in 1973. These works investigated the primal conditions of cinema itself. The films explore the relationship between screen image and spatio-temporal illusion – the materiality of the screen in relationship to the image as representation. Ideas that each artist would continue to explore after collaboration. But further to these concerns, these films mark a vital phase in the process of both artists as they sought to create a body of work with intellectual rigour without sacrificing the imaginative and aesthetic qualities of art.