Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

`Lost in Space`, 2009, 16mm film in colour, 5:55 min, with sound `Lost in Space` was filmed at an abandoned U.S. nuclear missile base and is part of Beddington?s investigation into capsular architecture of the Cold War period. The strange flying saucer-like object, lying abandoned on an old baseball court, was part of a now defunct radar system used to pinpoint co-ordinates for a nuclear-charged missile launch during the 1960s. In the film the object is approached cautiously thus giving it a certain presence that is heightened by shots of moving clouds and swaying vegetation. Sarah Beddington makes films that often investigate environments from the past as a starting point from which to look at the present. With `Lost in Space`, as in all of her other work, there is a sense of anticipation of waiting for something to happen. The meticulously observed compositions of her shots from an unmoving camera encourage the viewer to slow down and observe details of stillness and watching, light and shadow that turn this object of surveillance, once part of a system of power and fear, into an abject one that is now being surveyed. This relic from a utopian future that never happened becomes a surreal sundial for another era.

Sarah Beddington is a British artist and filmmaker, currently based in Paris, whose work is documentary in nature and investigates the intersection between the social, the personal and the political. Working in a variety of media, she records unique social and aesthetic circumstances that can manifest themselves in unanticipated ways. Her work revolves around the juxtaposition of the historical and the contemporary, often in relation to specific places, journeys and migration. Whether using installation, film or video, Beddington constructs parallel moments which, existing within a non-linear, non-narrative time, often have a dream-like quality. Solo exhibitions include Places of Laughter and of Crying, Bloomberg SPACE, London (2008); Crossing, DAC, New York (2008); Panoptiscope, Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL, London (2006); Parallel Lines and Other Stories, Artlab, Berlin (2005). Group exhibitions include Liverpool Biennale: Future Movements (2010); Les Rencontres Internationales, Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid (2009); Eastern Standards: Western Artists in China, MASS MoCA (2009); Vanishing Point, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio; About Time, Nordjyllands Kunstmuseum, Denmark. Her work is represented in a number of public and private collections including Arts Council England.