Hereford College of Arts   2009/2010

Lois Hopwood

I have always wanted to make a landscape film of the Welsh borders and the AA2A at HCA helped me achieve my goal. The filming was all done on a digi cam during a fortnight in November 2009 and is of the Landscape of the Beacon above Beguildy. The film is 4min long and the screen is divided into three screens, the largest showing the moving image, which begins with a tracking shot of 'Cefn Pawl'. The left hand screen shows a 'no mans land ' between parallel fences on Offas Dyke, while the second is of the Radnor forest from Glyndwrs way. The sound track is made from samples I collected with the equipment loaned by the college, good sound took the film to another level. The film is looped and runs consecutively in colour and b&w. What interested me was our response to the landscape in these two states and how the human brain creates a narrative out of a sequence of random events. In addition to the film my exhibition was about the location and about recording what was in it. I made stills of the beginning at 'Cefn Pawl' and at the end of the film at 'Church House Farm', and paintings of the objects i collected and free hand studies of the maps of the road. I would like to thank all at HCA for their support and especially Wendy Tolley, James Clarke,Greg Dunn, Nick Brown, Nick Beresford - Poole, Christine Earle and last but not least Mandy Pritchard.