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Andy Ecclestone

Requiem, 2001

"Requiem" is a video piece with a 5.1 surround sound component. A BetaSP copy is held at the YFA, at their request, but more usually I back up my work onto hard drives and use these as my archive. So far, I haven't had any problems with data loss, and haven't considered using anything else. "Requiem" was made in collaboration with sound designer Ron Wright and commissioned by Opera North, it takes as its cue Isaiah Berlin's comment on Verdi: '…a man who dissolved everything in his art' and uses it literally, depicting the gradual and ultimate dissolution, then regeneration, of a French horn immersed in acid. The evanescent nature of the piece reflects the inherent loss underlying the requiem form, whilst simultaneously acting as both a testament to that loss and a record of the event. The transformation of the instrument, albeit undisplaced within the frame, is evocative of the transmigration of the soul upon death: reincarnation, rebirth, hope, the perpetual cycle of life and death. The piece was originally shot on digibeta, then authored on loop-encoded DVD, for continuous playback at shows.

Shooting "Requiem" was dangerous. It entailed lowering the suspended horn into a tank containing about six gallons of concentrated nitric acid. All was going according to plan until the peak of the dissolution, when the tank began to emit a gas – which we now know was N204 dinitrogen tetroxide – into the lab. Our fume extraction system proved to be too weak and we had to evacuate everyone from the room for the remainder of the shoot - inhalation would have caused the lungs to dissolve. I kept the camera running and captured the vapourous menace, which can be seen as a fiery reddish gas in the video. Evacuating the lab however didn't protect our clothes and the following day we discovered that our tops and trousers had been perforated by the gas.

Requiem, 2001

Requiem, 2001, DVD

"Requiem" was commissioned by The Culture Company, Opera North & Arts Council England, as part of "Tone: The Yorkshire Commissions 2001". First shown at Impressions Gallery, York, in 2001-2002.

I am a lens-based media artist, working primarily on video installations. I have been a professional practitioner for over 15 years, working with video over the last four years after moving on from painting and photography.

My work is the product of a consummate interest in building bridges of demystification between the arts and sciences, through collaboration and exploration of the creative potential of both scientific imaging technologies and techniques.

Works have been shown recently at both Lovebytes and Sightsonic International Festivals of Digital Art. I am currently artist-in-residence in the Physics and Astronomy Department of Sheffield University, developing a series of videos on nanotechnology, as well as compiling a comprehensive visual database on the subject.