Nature Morte

Nature Morte

2015, UK, 16mm, b/w, sound, 10 min. 27 sec.

Nature Morte is a suite of 16mm films composed of different floral arrangements, whereby the subject matter also transforms into a source of sound. Looking back towards Robert Mapplethorpe’s early flower photographs, Hobbs takes on board the idea that the flowers represented here are simultaneously life and death - and as such have a frequency that hums with tension. With a focused and durational gaze, each “still life” explores the visual beauty of a staged composition, while at the same time searching for moments within the frame that utilize the optical soundtrack on the film’s surface to create sonic equivalent. Here, the image is sound, and the sound is image.