A Moving Target
Computer-generated montage sequence with 100 silent UHD videos, approx. 100 mins.
2021-2022
A Moving Target is a cinematic work that experiments with structures of narrative without telling tangible stories. The project comprises a repository of 100 video segments, each around one minute in length. A custom-made video playback tool re-montages these segments each time the work is activated, resulting in an ever-changing filmic experience that has no particular beginning or end.
The dream-like, meditative, déjà-vu-ridden scenes that feature in A Moving Target were shot and collected over the course of one year through a decidedly intuitive process, in which I filmed one-minute video fragments through spontaneous encounters in various settings. With no prior plans for what or when to film, the sustained presence of a compact cinematic camera became an opportunity to observe my everyday life with a sense of openness—a sense that is evident here in the particular attention paid to light, colour, texture, movement, and the semiotics of objects and spaces.
In the resulting work, each cinematic segment recorded carries a potential for storytelling that is never fulfilled, as the montage changes with each viewing and all narrative context appears to have been extracted from the evocative visual material. The possibility of narrative resolution is perpetually deferred, and the viewer is invited to immerse themselves in ocular pleasure through free association and subjective perception.
Relevant links:
Artforum Critics' Picks - review by Kaya Genç
Delfina Foundation - Platform - conversation with Nabila Abdel Nabi
A Moving Target was produced with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council, the City of Toronto through the Toronto Arts Council, and Delfina Foundation, London.
Installation views: In Parallel, The Power Plant, Toronto, 2023. Photos by Toni Hafkenscheid.
