"This is the first installation I've made where I'm at the front. I'm not normally the person that people came to see. This is a first for me."
In March this year, we hosted visual designer and animator Esther McElwee in a residency at The Lighthouse Project Space. The residency provided Esther with the necessary space and materials to experiment with different technical setups and explore the presentation of audio-visual installation works.
Over the final days of the residency, she presented Parting Clouds, an installation created in collaboration with harpist Eva Lunny that was open for public viewing.
At the private view of Parting Clouds, Esther shared her creative process and reasons behind her work:
“I normally do visuals for club nights and music events where essentially the visuals are paired with the music, so they're kind of a secondary part of it, and as much as I think that that is really important for a lot of events and really adds a lot of value to the event and can make it more interesting.
I also think that visuals can often distract from music and don't always add to it. Sometimes, it's special just watching a band, and you don't need to see a huge screen in the background, but I also do think that there's a time and place for it.
I'm really passionate about making work that pairs those two things together in different spaces so you don't need to go into an arena and see a 20-foot screen.
This is the first installation I've made where I'm at the front. I'm not normally the person that people came to see. This is a first for me.
With Parting Clouds, I wanted to think back to when I first started animating. The first time I ever did visuals was for a club night that I ran in Birmingham in 2019, just before COVID. I didn't really know how to animate, so a lot of what I created was very DIY - using cameras with the shutter speed on really slow and spinning around in circles and just seeing what happens.
Actually some of that stuff that I made back then, when I didn't know how to animate is still my favorite stuff I've ever made, and I think sometimes your taste outgrows your skill and it's kind of this weird cycle with animating - where you like something and you have an idea and you try to learn how to make that and you do that and then you move on. Or your technical ability outgrows it, and it's quite easy to get stagnant on learning and learning and learning a technical skill, and often I think that can really damage your creativity in a way because it's more about what's impressive or what's complex than what looks nice or is moving.
So I've kind of tried to go back to that and looked back at a lot of early work that I made. This has been really difficult to edit, and I spent a lot of hours this week on it. It's also been really enjoyable to edit in a way that I haven't done in a while.”
The stunning twelve-minute audio-reactive visual installation was displayed across a large-scale gauze screen and took centre stage at our Project Space. The piece aimed to create an awe-inspiring experience for the viewer, using various animation and video art methods to create something that merges the digital and physical.
The night was made even better by DJ sets from Sebastian Muller and Floosi from BBG Brighton
This special residency was programmed by the brilliant minds of Lighthouse's Future Creative Leaders (FCL).
About
Esther McElwee is a visual designer and animator originally from Birmingham. Since graduating from film school in Bristol, she has worked with a range of clients such as London Short Film Festival, We Out Here Festival and Jamz Supernova.
https://126studios.com | @126.studios
Eva Lunny is a harpist, composer and ambient music producer. Inspired by sonic pioneers such as Aphex Twin, Tim Hecker and Brian Eno, as well as harpists Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, Eva creates a mix of ambient soundscapes and neoclassical pieces for her live show, bringing audience members on a journey of sound and reflection.
Future Creative Leaders (FCL) is a 12-month paid programme offering young creatives from underrepresented backgrounds the opportunity to work closely with Lighthouse's leadership team to explore various aspects of creative leadership. Funded and supported by Art Fund’s ‘Reimagine Grants’ and Chalk Cliff Trust, over the year, participants will co-curate programmes, select participants for mini-residencies, and recruit their successors, all while exploring alternative governance structures, accountability, and power-sharing.
