Parallaxed is a self penned verse recounting the fictional life of a photographer living with the effects of the ongoing degeneration of his memory (possibly from dementia). The piece is both an account of his confusion but also a reference to the nature of photography, how it reflects and subverts what we already know to be illusory. His sister muses their past relationship and how he described the transmutation that is photographic image making, like he was an alchemist.
Whilst the narrative is fictional, it is largely based on experience. Underlying is a certain duality where fact, fiction and shared experience meet, and where memory becomes the medium itself.
I have always been intrigued by the nature of photography, how it records and holds a moment in time, which then travels down the timeline as both an object and a memory.
The verse provides a rhythmic structure to run images against, creating a narrative that has a certain detachment from the visual. Is Leica an object or a woman? Is the child’s voice related to him? Are these his distant memories returning fully formed or being remade?
Using a collage of domestic film, contemporary video footage shot by myself, plus phone clips I filmed occasionally, I attempt to marry different subjects, media and time into a cohesive, yet fragmented whole. The majority of the ‘family film’ seen here comes from an old school friend I hadn’t contacted for 50 years, whose father’s 8mm cine footage rather spookily popped up during my search online as if waiting to be revived.
The final single verse of music is used with the kind permission of Glasgow based musician and songwriter Maria Quinn, whose work I came across online, and the child’s voice is from my own daughter’s 30 year old answer machine message.
I had no budget for this, aside from paying a modest fee to my voice over artist and the purchase of a 1930s Leica camera. I tried very hard to find someone who would lend me one to film but in the end had to bid online in an auction, and again for a matching case. The Leica Rangefinder, now suitably clad, becoming a beautiful, fetishised leading lady.
LANGUAGE : English COUNTRY : UK YEAR : 2025 DURATION : 07m DIRECTOR / WRITER : Neil Armstrong CAMERA / EDITING : Neil Armstrong NARRATOR : Lana Citron PILLOW TALK : Written and performed by Maria Quinn CHILD VOICE : Holly Baxter 8MM FILM FOOTAGE : Tom Tasker with kind permission of Paul Tasker ADDITIONAL 8MM FILM FOOTAGE : with kind permission of Dave Edwards ADDITIONAL MUSIC : Sam fox, Michael Noguera
Director Statement :I am an artist and video/film maker living in Northumberland in the North East of England. I intended to become a painter, but on attending art college went through my own personal dematerialisation of the art object and came out the other end as a performance artist and maker of all things time based.
A few years ago I began writing free verse. Not really sure why – they just sort of spilled out. I had been a big fan of Rupert Bear as a boy and an element of those rhyming couplets sneaked in. I had also been reading epics like Basil Bunting’s Briggflatts, Beowulf and T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland.
Struck by how one of my verses had preempted a whole bunch of now global crisis, it became the basis of my first video verse – a dystopian allegory ‘The Tipping Point’ using my own diaristic video and found footage.
PARALLAXED was written around the same time. A couple of years later I decided to make this too into a film. It has the elements of object based narrative which by now had become a feature of my work. I was a Zenit B man myself at college (a cheap, robust Russian SLR) but a friend of mine, with a camera knowledgeable dad, had a Leica. It was indeed a thing of beauty and I recall he covered its distinctive moniker with black tape so as to make it less obviously desirable to those with covetous inclinations. That memory, along with my experiences of dementia, gave birth to the following story.
Making these short films allows me the freedom to work without the need for funding, and to be completely flexible as to how and when I make them. They are in contrast to some of my larger projects which have tended to require external funding. In this way they have much in common with my early performance work.
Bio : Newcastle Polytechnic BA hons Fine Art. Early adopter of b/w open reel video for performance work (De Appel Gallery Amsterdam, Coventry Events week etc). Arts Council Great Britain’s video artist in residence Brighton Polytechnic 1980/81.
During the 80s toured and exhibited extensively. ICA London, Tate Gallery, Air Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, Royal College/Slade and many international festivals. Toured across Canada funded by British Council.
90’s was mainly commercial, televisual. Received a Royal Television Society Award for TV Graphics. Winner Fuji Professional Distinctions Award for photography.
More recently, one man installation shows in Durham City, Hartlepool Gallery, Toffee Factory Newcastle, supported by Arts Council England. Group shows OVADA Oxford, Maidstone Museum.
In 2018 ran a video installation project across venues in Newcastle upon Tyne with Disability North, as part of the Great Exhibition of the North. In 2023 my video verse ‘The Tipping Point’ was shown in a former bunker in Kazakhstan.
Pebbles Underground is focused on showcasing and promoting experimental, avant-garde, underground, and no-to-low budget projects by artist-humans from all over the world. Absurd, uncanny, witty, humorous, slow-video – all are welcomed, and loved.
Pebbles Underground is an independent project not funded by any government or corporation, and we intend to keep it that way. Main source of funding is personal donations from humans organizing the project, who are artists themselves, and the main drive of the project is formed by the energy and involvement of the organizers, and the public.
