Liz Rideal Fall, River, Snow

Compton Verney hosted the premier of Liz Rideal’s new film installation, shot at Niagara, Burleigh Falls and Big Cedar in Canada. The film, which was in three parts entitled Water Drape, Ice Steam, and Deer Portrait, projected onto the landscape at Compton Verney and focused attention on the mesmeric power of scenery.

Shot on Super 8, these silent films were a conscious meditation on the beauty of the natural world. They track the movement of water, snow packed firm on land, a lake, wheeling gulls, camouflaged deer, a double rainbow, and the snow laden branches of trees. The result was an enigmatic portrayal of a particularly distinctive terrain, which was projected onto the dramatic backdrop of a lake and trees at Compton Verney, illuminating the immediate landscape as it descended into dusk.

Fall, River, Snow enabled Compton Verney to extend its programme beyond the confines of the building. The park acted as a film screen for the projections whilst offering another context for the unfolding drama in Rideal’s films.

Rideal’s work revolves around issues of repetition, scale, motion and colour. In the 1980s she explored ideas related to the photo booth and investigated ways of using the photographic strip as a piece within a larger image. In the late 1990s Rideal produced Cascades, where she juxtaposed photographic stills of drapery caught in motion, creating the illusion of waterfalls. This idea of making stills resembling movement has evolved and now the film reel itself dictates the image and the pace of viewing, as seen in Fall, River, Snow.

Rideal’s recent projects include Kerfuffle, which was shown on the outside of BBC Broadcasting House (2004), and Light Column, for a permanent stairwell installation at the Hippodrome Theatre, Birmingham (2005). This year solo exhibitions of her work were held in New York and Philadelphia, USA.