Winter and Summer

Constructed from two time lapse sequences, one shot over a complete day in mid-winter, the other in the summer, Chris Welsby’s film documents changing seasonal effects, plus changes through the day, via a tidal estuary. The winter scenes were shot at one frame every 10 seconds, summer every 20. Boats appear to dance as the wind and tide jostle them, and clouds move overhead at high speed.

Both sequences run at 24 frames per second, with summer appearing faster - more footage was shot, and with a longer interval between each frame. Artist and experimental filmmaker Chris Welsby has explored the possibilities of landscape filmmaking for over forty years, first shooting on 16mm, later working in HD and also making installations. His films follow specific pre-determined structures which establish the parameters for the shape of the film while allowing chance elements to take their effect, invariably the wind or weather though also gravitational and even planetary aspects. His overarching project is the study of man’s relationship to the natural environment; man sometimes presented as a destructive agent, the environment often as a force utterly beyond our control.