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

Night Hunter (2011), incorporates images of Lillian Gish taken from silent-era, live-action cinema. The narraitve unfolds intuitively, and reveals itself in the process of construction. To produce the film, Steers generated over 4,000 paper collages which combine fragments of 19th century illustrations with images from four silent-era moving pictures. Steers’ process is painstaking and meticulous—Night Hunter took over four years to make, with approximately eight collages required to produce a single second of film time. In some instances, Gish is cut out of specific scenes and reconfigured in collage environments, while collage materials are applied directly to printed film frames in others. The subsequent fluidity becomes a critical element in the texture of the film, and the identity of the principal character. Transitions, both biological and metaphorical, are central themes. The collages were photographed in 35mm on an Oxberry animation stand. Larry Polansky composed the music and sound elements.

"For my film Night Hunter, I was looking for a character with strong emotional resonance and decided to take the preeminent actress Lillian Gish out of scenes from her early silent-era films and re-contextualize her actions. Her work in those films is deeply compelling. She has an evocative presence and vast range and depth of feeling in her performances. I combined her images with fragments of 19th century illustrations, primarily from the work of Pre-Raphaelite artists." - Stacey Steers