Deeply influenced by environmental catastrophe and ideas of utopia and dystopia, our duo practicesynthesizes the non-fictional and the fictional to depict a parallel reality. As a duo, we (Manuel Padding and I, Samantha Rees) make installations, sculptures, sound, and videos, using each mediumto explore both the tensions of our socio-political surroundings and the boundaries between realityand fantasy. Through these various media, we depict worlds with ambiguous temporalities: thesecould be set in the present, past, or future. Drawing heavily on our contemporary moment, we often engage with ideas of displacement andloss, yet it is important that the works resist narrative specificity. This is because displacement ishappening in many places and on many levels; uncertainty is an increasingly central element ofcontemporary human circumstances, and the works remain fluid to account for this diverse experience.
Though our works explore overarching themes of loss, disappearance, historical utopia, nature, andcollapse, we use visuals and sound to address these existential themes on an intricate and intimate level. We frequently present images of abandoned buildings and ruins together with hints of utopiain the same works, provoking feelings of potential, loss, and decay. Our videos often reflect on thefragility of our surroundings, for example by picturing the aftermath of industrial collapse, where the once-dominant brittle concreteness of industrialization has been reduced to degradation. The resulting ruins and desolation become recurring motifs that serve as poignant reminders of the transient nature of our surroundings and our lives – however robust they might first seem.
There is also an element of seeking or exploration to the works. In our depictions of a world seemingly stuck outside of time, life itself regains control of place; nature slowly returns to these abandoned industrial sites, without erasing the traces of an indulgent past. This vitality is emphasized through our use of sound. The soundscapes for our videos consist of discovered sound, original audio, and electronic compositions. The effect on the works is a combination of meditation, fantasy, and imagination. The sound not only reflects the visual qualities of the videos by conjuring aforlorn sense of loss or eeriness, but also adds mystical, fantastical, and dreamlike qualities. Manuelplays a significant role in encouraging an emotional response through the senses that might nototherwise be so immediate.
Overall, our work aims to move the viewer to a realm beyond this one, to a place outside of the constraints of our mundane existence, where the boundaries of the physical and metaphysical converge. It seeks to provoke both outward reflection and introspection, encouraging discourse on the construction and fragility of our perceived reality.
sam rees 