Carol Sommer
Artist Bio
I’m interested in Iris Murdoch’s philosophical ideas about Eros as a kind of magnetism that draws us towards good (High Eros) and bad (Low Eros) desires and objects, and the way this might join us to a better - or a worse - world. This involves the idea of giving time, or paying attention, to these desires and objects. ‘Monolith’ is a 20 minute collation of 20 short videos that feature me looking at different monoliths or standing stones as particular objects of attention in the landscape.
I've had the opportunity to show previous video work in various forms over the past few years, for example as part of Baltic Open Call, 2024, as part of a reel with other video artists work on a flat screen TV, at a one night event hosted by Industrial Coast as part of 'A Monday Night In Middlesbrough' in March 2024, where the videos were shown as a projection, at an event 'Destination/Elevation' curated by tion arts, at Pop Recs in Sunderland, in February, 2024; here the videos were shown on a loop during the evening, then as a solo show at 36 Gallery in Newcastle in 2022 where I presented the videos as a large scale projection, and as part of 'Are You A Woman in Authority?' curated by Lizz Brady and Broken Grey Wires at Phoenix Art Space, in Brighton in 2023, where the video was played on a loop on a flat screen tv.
Selected Work
Name: MonolithSilent 20 minute single channel video Monolith is a collation of 20 short videos made in various locations featuring standing stones across the UK. These settings feel like an invitation to possibilities of interpretation and association, through their symbolic, ancestral, elemental and temporal connotations.
