CatharineClarkGallery

Steers’ film Phantom Canyon (2006), is an exploration of memories, a reflection on a pivotal journey taken many years ago, and a surreal circumnavigation of that experience. Collages composing this film incorporate photocopied elements from 18th and 19th century engravings with figures from Eadweard Muybridge’s Human and Animal Locomotion, first published in 1887.  The Muybridge figures were recombined to create the movements necessary for the narrative flow of the film.

"In 2001, I was searching for a new way of working with materials and I chanced upon a collage technique where I incorporated antique photographic materials and clip art (originally Eadweard Muybridge's human motion studies from 1887) for the film Phantom Canyon. Historic materials carry a certain nostalgic resonance for me that evokes a timeless quality, and I like the neutrality of the found image.

In Phantom Canyon, I started creating collage sequences and decided not to think at all about subject or developing a narrative direction. I was just exploring the technique. About a third of the way into the film I began to see the images and events I was working with had some relationship to an early pivotal trip I had take to Latin American where I had married a young Venezuelan and had a child. Metaphorically, memories of that time were being expressed through me in the collage process. Once I recognized this, I began to allow that inclination to drive the film." - Stacey Steers