The Moment We Knew Nothing of Each Other.

'The Moment We Knew Nothing of Each Other' is a permanent installation of a large scale photographic diorama in the foyer of Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton.

Hamann’s work operates in the space between the still and the moving image, and is conceptually founded on the integration of old and new media.

The permanent photographic installation is inspired by the 19th century diorama principle of exhibiting translucent pictures with lighting effects and applies the latest digital printing technology to create images in continuous transition and change. Combining Hamann’s original film-strip technique with a novel use of 19th century diorama optical devices, the imagery creates a metaphysical sense of movement as well as making visible another world behind everyday appearances.

The artist positions traces of everyday public performance, people travelling, again in a public meeting place, creating a physicality of real time and recorded movement. Using methods of performance, chance and permanent transition both in the creation of imagery and the technology of display Hamann manages to create a dynamic artwork that will look different each time visited. The piece reflects on the parallel of theatre and photography describing a period of time. The momentary encounter of passers-by photographically frozen on two film-strips, escapes the viewers gaze in the installation when the images are slowly dissolving into each other.

In a climate of high resolution realistic photography Hamann’s film-strip imagery offers a new representation of the way we see and observe and the process of observing rather than the observed object itself. Some of the figures walking by have not registered on the film-strips due to the incongruence of the movement of the film in the camera and the movement of the figure. Similarly when we focus our attention on a person or a thing we may not register other persons or things in the same optical field.

Sigune Hamann's work encompasses video and film strip installations, photography, animated films and interactive media projects, exploring narrative structures through filmic images, languages and sound.

Sigune Hamman

Research Interests

Moving image; narrative structures & non-linear storytelling; sound - image relationship; video and photography.

Profile

Sigune Hamann's work encompasses video and film strip installations, photography, animated films and interactive media projects, exploring narrative structures through filmic images, languages and sound.
After studying Visual Communication in Berlin, Hamman received a DAAD scholarship for Great Britain (1990-91) where she graduated from the Royal College of Art, London. She was also awarded a scholarship from the Friedrich Naumann Stiftung (1991-93), the Prince Albert's Vision Award (1992) and Delfina Studio Award in 1994.
In 2006 Sigune was TrAIN artist in residence at the Kunstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral (Bad Ems, Mainz), Germany.

Recent Research

Recent projects include the multi-narrative video installation 'DinnerFor1' which toured both Germany and the UK in 2005/06. Inspired by the cult German television production 'Diner for One' from 1963 (based on a British Vaudeville act from the 1920s), Hamman's 'Dinerfor1' is a collaboration with the actor Hayley Carmichael which plays on cultural stereotypes on British life and national identities through themes of wit, war and royality. Launched at the Goethe Institute in 2005, it now forms part of the International Verbund Collection, Vienna, Austria.

'I'll Walk Alone - You'll Never Walk Alone' was commissioned in 2005 by the Harris Museum & Art Gallery in Preston as part of the exhibition 'Temporal 'Landcapes: Artists Working with Photography'. Referencing two popular war songs from 1944 in its title, Hammann's site specific installation was inspired by the sequential reading and narrative structures of Greek and Assyrian friezes in the Harris Museum. The panormaic film-strip imagery was taken at a game between Preston North End and Derby County at Preston's Deepdale Football Stadium in May 2005.

The online docu-fiction 'NothingButTheTruth' was first screened at Interfiction IX - arte-Faction, Kassel (2002), and subsequently at the Stuttgart Film Winter Festival (January 2003), The Irish Museum of Modern Art Net, Dublin (2003), and since 2003 is represented in the Rhizome art-base collection. Other ecent commissions include a large scale photographic diorama for Northampton Theatre, RHWL Architects, curated by Judy Adam (work in progress).

Artist Statement

"My work operates in the space between the still and the moving image. I experiment with moving images and images created through movement, and explore non-linear narrative structures through panoramic images, language and sound. I aim to engage the viewer/listener through manipulation and fragmentation of factual and fictional texts. I am interested in the way factual text becomes fiction through intervention and fictional texts comment on factual events."