Reynold Reynolds
USA/IT 2014
4 min. two-channel installation / 6 min. single channel projection
HD video transferred from 16mm & digital stills

‘The true outlines of opaque bodies are never seen with sharp precision.’
—Leonardo da Vinci

1 Part 7 takes as its point of departure a Renaissance image that purports to demonstrate the rules of linear mathematical perspective, to take up historically similar questions of experience and of self. The work connects its own exploration of often-troubled relationships between viewing positions, visual technologies, and notions of modernity, “back to a far earlier period, when the very notion of a ‘technology of viewing’ was first being forged.” It offers a simultaneous crashing together of linear perspective, anamorphosis, and sfumato, together with other visual modes and systems, implicitly comparing early Renaissance revisions to perspective to those realized through digital technology. This raises issues of the possibility of permeable boundaries among objects and between physical and virtual worlds, and radical revisions of notions of space and scale. The resultant possibilities offer new conceptions of space and representation that challenge those who suggest the digital world will subvert the physical.
1 Part 7 incorporates stop motion animation, bringing together mural installations, constructed models and objects, and performers to investigate ideas of Space, Time, Scale and Perception.

Image: Albrecht Dürer. Artist and model with perspective grid. From Instruction in measurement with compass and ruler, in lines, planes, and whole bodies. 1525. // Text: Ruth S. Noyes

A longer essay by Ruth S. Noyes on 1 Part 7 can be found here

Credits:

Production
Saskia Reynolds

Production design
Ana J. Bellido

Models
Eric Nathan, Eka Kadjaeva and Laura Riccioli

Perspective wall drawing
Julie Zhu and Ana J. Bellido

Camera System development
Moritz Uebele

16mm film developing
Imogen Heath

Interns
Benjamin C. Eastburn and Julie Zhu

Thanks for the support of:
The American Academy in Rome, Kim Bowes, Giulia Barra, Wendy Artin, Susan Moore, Shara Wasserman and the Cornell in Rome study abroad program.

Thanks Ruth S. Noyes for the essay and the help with all correspondence in Italian.