T. +64 (0) 9 379 9922
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www.mic.org.nz
Tue - Fri 10am-6pm / Sat 11am-4pm
MIC Toi Rerehiko Gallery
Level 1, 321 Karangahape Rd, Newton,
Auckland 1010
opening 6pm on 4 September
4 September - 17 October, 2009
Secrets from the Ocean Floor
Jed Town
Jed Town
Secrets from the Ocean Floor
Liquid Crystal Rhythms
Secrets from the Ocean Floor
Andrew Clifford
Jed Town, June 2009
Jed Town’s reputation as a video artist can be
traced back to the early 1980s and his time in
the multimedia collective, Fetus Productions.
The group found notoriety for their appropriated
medical imagery of autopsies and deformities,
which featured on album covers, t-shirts,
paintings, and eventually in the slide and video
projections that became a key part of their audiovisual performances.
What to call this work is a mystery. Making an
underwater recording is always a joy: the actual
swimming in the sea, enjoying the play of light
on the sand and rock formations. I am constantly
amazed by the many infant fish that appear when
I’ve stopped to record a scene. These prehistoric
creatures have lived here far longer than humans
have roamed the earth, and that interests me. A
rich source of life exists under the sea, and
there is harmony between fish, plants and the
ocean itself. The ever-constant movement of
the current forces all life to move backwards
and forwards, much like our lungs inhaling and
exhaling the air we breathe. There is a beauty
and serenity in this world that always leaves me
at peace – a sense of calm that is similar but
different to our existence on land.
1. Secrets from the Ocean Floor, 2009
As the ears and eyes become submerged in water,
a blanket covers these senses and an internal
awareness seems to overwhelm me. As I learn to
overcome the imaginary fear of suffocation or
predator sharks attacking, an anticipation of the
excitement of the forthcoming experience takes
over. I answer any technical thoughts on survival
in this predicament with the simple answers:
“Well, at least you’ll have died enjoying the
swim”, or “Well, everyone has to die at some time
or other”. We seem to only have this one life,
and if you enjoy something, you should do it, not
think about it. As I swim towards different places
the awareness of my breathing becomes apparent,
the pressure on my ears forces concentration
inwards to internal sounds. Over many years this
process has always been the same, and in this I
find my satisfaction. Somehow there is a process
of inner awareness and a key unlocks a doorway
to internal discovery. The secret of serenity is
always there, waiting for a decision to open the
door to a hidden treasure within. This is why I
call the work Secrets from the Ocean Floor.
3. Fish Tank TV, 2002. Edited with David Blyth
The found imagery they used was collected in a
similar manner to their sound recordings, using
technology such as portable recorders to gather
and sample material from the world around them and
layer it into intricate collages along with readymades and new material. They employed microphones
to explore and construct sonic landscapes as if
using a microscope to get a deeper insight into
the world around them.
Although often shocking, for Town there was always
an interest in paring back the sanitised façade of
society to reveal the human mechanics beneath; not
to expose something gruesome but to objectively
reveal structure, a strategy recalling Eadweard
Muybridge’s late 19th-century multi-camera
photographs which reveal the hidden patterns of
life in motion. As well as the graphic images
of flesh and bone, there were more reflective
sequences, including sunsets and heartbeats, which
combined to create dynamic productions that would
lead the audience through an emotive journey of
extremes.
From these early experiments, Town has continued
to explore a holistic view of the world drawn from
a philosophical approach to reality and an empathy
for life. In contrast to the sensory assault of a
typical Fetus performance, Town’s work is now more
meditative, taking in the simple pleasures of fish
tanks, cloudscapes and underwater diving. Embedded
in the detail of these everyday experiences are
the rhythms of life, a universal communication
Town has also explored through his involvement in
the techno music scene, where hypnotic light and
sound creates a collective night club experience.
This absorption and subsequent distribution of
information could be compared to an Evan Webb
description of Len Lye’s cameras and projectors,
inhaling and exhaling light like the breathing of
energy between night and day1.
Similarly, Town’s aquatic world in Secrets from
the Ocean Floor is less concerned with the exotic
clichés of iridescent shoals of fish typically
found in documentary footage, instead focussing
on the underlying patterns of light, movement
and breathing. As with his work as a DJ or VJ,
Town guides his audience through a sequence of
carefully choreographed events and structures,
building and releasing tension. Viewers are
submerged but propelled forward in their journey
by the constant momentum of a soundtrack, which
in turn adds an emotional layer using what Town
describes as “dreamy, meditative and oceanic”
variations to colour perceptions of the imagery
with new readings.
Frames multiply and combine, replaying different
moments simultaneously and creating overlays
that shift and shuffle time sequences, swirling
at varying speeds. Faceted into a kaleidoscopic
multi-screen grid, the work becomes less a linear
re-telling of the artist’s underwater encounter,
rather, a conceptual response to that experience.
This approach disrupts the illusion of a simulated
reality, dissolving it into complex combinations
to suspend the viewer out of time, allowing a more
internal, pluralistic and subjective response
drawn from immersing kinaesthetically in a
symphonic visual experience.
When I started editing the HD footage, a process
of filtering out segments and exploring the
potential ways of viewing the scenes began to
emerge. Initially I thought a three-screen display
would capture the expansive view I saw underwater
but I discovered it was the motion of the current
and the filtering of light that captured my
attention most. I wanted to join three separate
views into a three-screen panorama but, whilst
this would work with a wide stage screen or large
gallery wall, the adaptation for this show suited
a two-screen version. In this way, the work could
be adapted to many versions depending on the
budget and size of the gallery. The DVD format
suits DV PAL displays but, because this footage
was shot on high definition tape, the format could
also change to suit HD projection.
Creating the music for the installation was
also a mystery. I decided to compose a few
separate pieces and join three works together in
succession. A nine-minute piece seemed the right
length because the human concentration level on
any particular subject is around ten minutes.
Also, as the footage contains no written or spoken
language, the universal language of instrumental
music seemed an appropriate accompaniment,
eloquent in any country of the world.
So the question arises- does the final work on
screen convey the feeling of the actual underwater
experience? That is for you to decide. The
underwater experience remains a practice of doing
and not just watching or hearing. This will never
capture the full bodily experience that it is.
Having said that, the work will end up existing
in a city gallery as part of the urban, concrete
jungle; these reflections of the underwater world
will provide glimpses and insights into the
fascination and enjoyment I experienced in making
it.
Works in the show
2. The Perfect Product: Fetus Reproductions 19802002, 2002
The Perfect Product is a collection of music
videos made between 1980-1989, intended for a
three screen installation at the Auckland Art
Gallery in 2004 and made in collaboration with
the Fetus Productions co-operative. It uses the
film sources Super-8mm, 16mm film, VHS and Umatic video, all converted to DV PAL format.
The Perfect Product features tracks from Fetus
Productions collection- What’s going on?, Flicker,
The Prisoner, Tokyo Rain, Backbeat, Drip, Torment
in a Room, Miscarriage, Sickboy Remix, Anthem,
Classical, I am a Criminal.
4. Cloudscapes of Aotearoa, 2006
Made with help from the Creative NZ Film grant
for new innovative screen works. Landscapes,
Cloudscapes, Seascapes, Airscapes, special
features, UFO and slide show.
* 2., 3., and 4. will be on daily rotation in
Gallery 3.
Artist Biography
Jed Town has worked as an audiovisual artist in
New Zealand for over 30 years, featuring in a
variety of music groups including The Superettes,
The Features, and Fetus Productions, an avantgarde art-cooperative active in the 1980s. The
1986 Flicker video won best music video at the
Sydney Film Festival. In 1987 Town was awarded a
film grant from the NZ Arts Council to complete
a project called The Box, which resulted in
inclusion into the exhibitions Content/Context
at the National Art Gallery and Headlands at
Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art and was later
released as the Fetus Reproductions DVD.
Town relocated to the UK in 1987 to tour and
record with Fetus Productions in Europe. QDK,
a German record label released the music as a
box-set including two 12” and a 7” record with
booklet. In the mid 1990s he worked as a dance
club visual designer and performed with ICU, a
techno unit, releasing vinyl records and CDs on
the self-created Sawtooth recordings label. He
performed at Sabotage, an electric circus, and
many other European venues. A 3D video Genie was
made for ICU in 1995 and released by German label
K7. He was invited in 1995 to perform in Auckland
and DJ as Jedeye, and subsequently returned to NZ
in 1997, where he has since been based.
In 2000 Town began to work for TV broadcasting as
a music composer for documentaries, feature film
soundtracks and installation shows. In 2007 he
composed music for the Rugby World Cup expo dome
in Paris, a multimedia show promoting New Zealand
culture and tourism. He travelled to New York in
2008 to perform original music in the opening show
for Hye Rim Lee’s Crystal City at the Max Lang
Gallery. He currently works and lives in his West
Auckland home studio.
Footnotes and Image Credits
Webb, E. (2009). Planting at Night. In T. Cann & W.
Curnow (Eds.), Len Lye (pp. 93, 95). Melbourne/New
Plymouth: ACMI/Govett-Brewster Art Gallery.
1
All images used are stills taken from Secrets from
the Ocean Floor, 2009