Concealment
FromAbout the film:
Director and Cinematographer: Ann Evelin Lawford.
Concealment is a short conceptual film that provides a commentary on morality of the world of female advertising. It explores the vulnerability of a model as she moves through the constructed world she performs in, making the audience re-examine their perception of perfection.
Concealment was presented as an installation with two opposing screens facing each other. This hopefully forced the viewer to stand and be torn between them. It creates a tension between two extremes: the female as object – a seductive relationship with the audience like a perfume commercial, and secondly, the female as subject – a more critically aware ‘real’ presentation. This more truthful presentation deconstructs the illusion of the seductive screen and reveals the impossibility to the audience.
Each screen loops on its own time schedule and therefore the relationship of each screen to the other is not synced and is in fact uncontrolled. The results will always be different – depending on when the viewer enters the space. The two different soundtracks (string music harmonics vs. detuned sine waves and pure tones) are also looped on their own time schedule that doesn’t match either of the screens, so a different combination will always be heard.
Potentially developing a more heightened aesthetic experience through rhythm and communicating more effectively than a single screen piece might have done. It is retaining the political agenda by eliciting a suitable relationship with the audience through the mode of presentation. It is making the piece discordant both physically, visually and sonically.