Hiddenplace
Hiddenplace was a series of new art commissions for innovative and challenging approaches to public art in Burnley, Lancashire, focussing on specific sites in the town centre, and on hidden, lost and forgotten aspects of the town.
Jill Randall chose to focus on 2 rivers which run, largely unnoticed, through the town centre. She wanted to reveal this hidden underbelly by floating a video camcorder on a specially-designed ‘boat’ along the rivers Brun and Calder, through culverts and under bridges through the centre of the town. These 2 rivers mysteriously appear and disappear. Randall was also fascinated by the rivers being culverted in the past to literally flush out detritus from the town, functioning like internal organs, and mirroring human vascular and circulatory systems.
The camera was like the “eye” of the river, providing new and unusual insights from under the town, travelling and recording where no person can go, an illicit camera with access to all areas, crossing the boundaries of private, commercial and municipal.
The final result is the video “Eye of the River” – a short film 7 mins 24 secs long, with a specially-composed soundtrack by Robin Walker ,which was shown at several unusual venues in Burnley Town Centre in 2009 .
With the collaboration of co-producer, David Bennett and Robin Walker, it proved to be an ambitious 3-way collaborative project.
Jill Randall said….’I had a very simple idea which proved very complex to realise! I had to turn inventor to work out the logistics of how to keep the camera dry and stable, and enable it to point in different directions, plus coping with inquisitive ducks , intrigued anglers, and not falling in !!! All in all, it was a great challenge which has opened up lots of new possibilities. Some of those culverts were seriously spooky!!…’
Quotes from the public during screening week:-
“I feel as if I’m being taken on a journey of exploration”
“I often said to myself when I was a kid, ‘I wonder where that river goes?’………”
“Its nice to see a different view of Burnley”.
Link to view video:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWhc1rNJDoo
Photography: Dave Bennett & Jill Randall.