Focus

by Sam Belinfante

16mm film transferred to HD video, black and white, sound
13 minutes (Excerpt 5 minutes)

For Focus Sam Belifante worked with vocalist Elaine Mitchener. Their collaboration grew out of a shared interest in ‘exercise’ as both a device to practise and test techniques and a repetitive activity that requires great physical effort. As an artist new to analogue film, Sam explored the limits and idiosyncrasies of his camera in a series of choreographed moves paced by each wind of the machine. Paralleling these movements, Mitchener engages in an intensive workout routine that has dramatic effects on her own (vocal) instruments.

Commissioned by Third Ear for The Voice and the Lens, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2012.