DO SOMETHING DO NOTHING

2-10pm Thursday 18 October - Saturday 20 October
Chapter Viewing Theatre
The video portraits presented as part of the project Do Something/Do Nothing were all shot in Cardiff and Swansea between September 2006 and March 2007.
All of the 'sitters' had responded to an advert, requesting volunteers to particiapte in a video-art project. Everybody who responded to the advert was invited to come and stand in front of a camera in an empty room. There were to be no real directions
on how to act or what to do and the only instruction was to stay within a certain boundary, in front of the camera, for a period of one whole hour. Once the camera was rolling I left the room, only to return after the hour was up. After the first period was over, with a rest being taken, the participants were then asked back to sit for one more portrait, this time for a duration of 30 minutes. The only difference being this time that I provided them with stimulus for a period. I asked them to consider one of a number of things, these included asking them to think about rooms that had played an important role in their lives or to think about lovers, past and prsent or even bad things that they had done for which they now had regrets. For me, it wasn't really important what they were actually thinking about, more that they were absorbed in a thought process, which I could then attempt to capture on film.

John Rowley