HD video with sound, 13 mins.
HD video transfer of a tape-slide work featuring a set of hand painted 35mm transparencies with a cassette tape soundtrack by the artist
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Black & white Super 8 film transfered to video. Silent. 1min A static camera records a section of woodland. After some time, a previously unnoticed figure drops from a high branch and hits the ground, before walking off. The artist grew up near these woods. |
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Bluebell wood, 1988
Super-8 film-strip of Bluebell Wood |
B & W Super-8 film, transfered to video - 4 mins Power and Light is a top to bottom, interior study of the derelict Dorćol power station in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. It was filmed whilst preparing a live performance with the Bow Gamelan Ensemble in the same building and in the moments leading up to the outbreak of the Yugoslav war. The text at the end of the film was written by Paul Burwell for the Final Academy, London 1983 |
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Power & Light (снага и светлост), 1990
Performance set for Bow Gamelan at Dorćol Power Station, Belgrade 1990 The Ensemble constructed the set in-situ over the period of a week in the cathedral-like, derelict power station. They collaborated with local fabricators and ex-soviet army explosives experts to produce an immersive and dynamic performance that went dangerously off-script at points. |
Black and white, standard definition video with ambient sound. 11.42 mins. In this real-time sequence, the artist tries to maintain his balance with a small, spirit level glass attached to his forehead. From a distance the image looks almost motionless, but when the viewer looks more closely, the impossibility of absolute stillness becomes apparent. |
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Spirit Level, 1993
A small glass phial from a spirit level (containing alcohol and air) was used in the video |
Standard definition video with ambient sound, 1.20 mins. The artist stands in front of the camera clasping a bunch of red chrysanthenums. Each time he is about to speak the video jump-cuts and only the 'out takes' are left behind. The viewer is left wondering about what is edited out. |
Flowers, 1993. Polaroid photo of the artist. |
Umatic video with sound, 2.10 mins In Palm Reader, the needle on a record player's arm methodically explores the lines of the artist's hand. The soundtrack relays the scratching sound of the needle running through the lines. |
Palm Reader, installed at Gallery Vela, London 2012 |
Standard definition video with sound. 4 mins (looping). Filmed in a single take, the artist walks on screen and climbs onto a white plinth before making a live performance to camera. The artist mimes to the shifting patterns of a toy drum machine, which is manipulated live, as an invisible and spatially consistent drum kit is mapped out. Exhibited on a cube monitor on top of white plinth. |
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Hot Music, 1993
Hot Music exhibited on a 4:3 cube monitor Exhibited at Milch Gallery and Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London 1996 and MOMA New York in 1998, the work was also shown throughout Central and South America in a British Council touring exhibition in 1999. Hot Music was published in Zapp Magazine, issue #3 October 1994 and has been performed live a number of times. |
Standard definition video with sound. 4 mins. In this film Dower interviews artist Bruce McLean about a spate of thefts and vandalism at an artist's residency programme in the Netherlands. The deadpan interviewer elicits increasingly comical reactions from McLean as the list of incidents grows. Laughter is infectious and this video affects the viewer with its contagion. |
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Interview with Bruce McLean, 1994
Camera and additional production, AP Komen and Jean Bernard Koeman. First exhibited at Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London 1996. |
Plywood, video monitor and mixed media Zou Zou's Mime Reconstructed is a three dimensional, ergonomic reconstruction of a mime, taken from a 1985 performance by cabaret clown Zou Zou. The space was extracted from a video recording made at the time and reflects every detail in the original performance. |
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Zou Zou's Mime, National Theatre, London 1999
Zou Zou's mime screened on National Theatre, London. The video was projected onto the fourth wall of the National Theatre overlooking the River Thames in central London. The screening was accompanied by an appeal for information about Zou Zou and a telephone number to contact. The appeal was unsuccessful, but Zou Zou was eventually tracked down via his participation in a German theatre festival. Zou Zou saw the sculputre of his mime in an Antwerp exhibition later the same year. |
Video with sound. 4 mins 'Retreival of a drowned man from the Singelgracht canal by the Amsterdam fire brigade' 1993 was made for the solo exhibition 'Unrelated Incidents' in Projektruim Zuid at the Rijksakademie van beeldenden kunsten in 1993. The events took place directly outside the window of the exhibition space, this and the 'verité' style of filming suggested that the artist had filmed real events as they unfolded outside the window. |
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Unrelated Incidents with view of Singelgracht canal, 1993
Exhibition installation 'Unrelated Incidents' with view of the Singelgracht canal, where 'Retreival of a drowned man' was filmed. |
Video projection with sound. 4 mins. The video features grainy, slowed-down CCTV footage a BMW 325i parked in front of the Bank of England in the City of London. A pedestrian carrying a briefcase slowly traverses the scene as the suspense builds. |
Interactive, live video installation with sound. Dimensions and duration variable A false door is set into the wall of an exhibition space. Muffled sound comes from behind the door and a notice reads 'exhibition continues this way'. When the door is opened, a solid wall painted with chromakey blue paint is revealed. On an adjacent video monitor the area of blue inside the doorway is filled with a video of fluorescent objects mixed with vertiginous footage from a fun-fair big wheel. |
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Chromakey Doorway, 1994
Plinth and monitor with live, 'keyed' video. |
4:3 ratio video with ambient sound. 28 mins (looping) The artist climbs into a series of clothes recycling bins on the streets of South London. Life on the outside continues and after several minutes the artist emerges transformed, wearing a new set of clothes found inside. Through the act of recycling, a subtle displacement of identity has taken place. First exhibited in 'Rational Behaviour' at The Tannery in Bermondsey, London 1996 |
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Clothes Recycling video, 1996
Still from Clothes Recycling Video, 1996 |
Standard definition video with ambient sound. 4 mins A bathetic shrouded figure with a box over it's head slowly emerges from the flow of commuters crossing London Bridge. The bridge is one of the entrances to the City of London and the busy commuters mostly avoid engaging with this irrational incursion into their lives. The figure makes its way haltingly across the bridge and in to the City. |
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London Bridge, 1996
Disguise worn by the artist for the video London Bridge. |
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No Room in Hell (Absent Qualia) 1997
Site-specific, 3D video projection with sound. 17 min (loop). Dimensions variable. Matt's Gallery, London. The video was shot in and around Matt's Gallery in East London, where it was also exhibited. In the darkened gallery, the 3D, colour video used polarising filters with glasses. The viewer was implicated in the action in this sculptural installation, which referenced the tradition of expanded cinema... |
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No Room in Hell (Absent Qualia) 1997
Still from polarized 3D Zombie Film No Room in Hell (Absent Qualia) was probably the first 3D film to be entirely shot, edited and publicly presented in the digital video format. It was certainly the first 3D, site-specific zombie film. Functioning within the tradition of horror and kitsch associated with 3D film, the subtitle (Absent Qualia) referenced a philosophical debate from the time, where zombies are used as metaphor to explore Artificial Intelligence. |
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3 Frame subliminal, 1997
Random play DVD with sound (above is low resolution GIF version) Distributed on VHS tape at Joshua Compston's Factual Nonsense 'Live Stock Market' in London 1997 and since exhibited on DVD. 3 Frame Subliminal contains a subliminal image that flashes randomly every 20-40 seconds on an otherwise black screen. |
HD video with soundtrack by Sonofapup, 3.28 min Shelter was produced with computer screensaver software using a series of 35mm photographs taken by the artist at a concert by the band Shelter in London, in 1996. The video combines still images of the audience with images of the instruments and equipment on an empty stage and the band is absent from the video. The screensaver software automatically zooms, pans and cross-fades the photographs. Shelter also exists as a photographic work |
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Shelter: screening at Supersonic Festival, Birmingham 2018
Exhibited in 2004 at London's National Film Theatre in a program featuring Dan Graham's seminal film 'Rock my Religion', Shelter was remastered in HD in 2018 and exhibited at Ikon Gallery and Supersonic Festival (image above), both in Birmingham UK |
Video installation with 5 videos, total running time 22 mins. Dimensions variable. Five music videos exhibited in a specially constructed space with sound-insulation and safety lights. Each video and its soundtrack are interdependent and of equal status. All video and sound produced by the artist. |
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I Want to Dance (2001) - featured in the exhibition Audiopatholgy
I Want to Dance, 2001. Standard Definition video with sound, 5.30 mins. I Want to Dance was one of five music videos exhibited in Audiopathology. With lyrics by Charles Gaines, vocals by Georgina Starr, music and video by the artist. |
Standard definition video with music soundtrack, 5 mins. (installation dimensions variable) A camera-based, Remote Characterisation System investigates and transmits video from woodland clearing. As the vehicle manoeuvres in and around the clearing, a scattering of paraphernalia for 'getting high' becomes evident. The video was filmed syncretically, using a time-shifted electronic music track by Sonofapup, which guides the rhythm of filming and is included in the final video. |
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Drug Den, 2001
Drug Den, syncretic camera script - 2001 The soundtrack guided the rhythm of filming and was sped up for shooting and then slowed back down to normal speed in the finished video, which added to the uncanny feel. |
RCS vehicle with wireless camera A Remote Characterisation System addresses hazardous or remote operational problems at a distance via remote monitoring. This RCS was custom made by the artist using radio-transmitter and receiver technology to direct the vehicle and camera from a remote location. |
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Remote Characterisation System, video 2001
SD video with soundtrack by Sonofapup 3.50 mins In Remote Characterisation System, 2001, an RCS makes an exploratory journey around Cremer Street studios where Dower worked at the time. The artist operated the machine from a concealed location as it made an unanounced visit to the studio of artist Mark Hosking. The soundtrack and video were conceived concurrently and the video is a precursor to - Drug Den, 2001. |
Digital Animation transferred to HD video, with surround sound. 1 Min (looping) A pair of pink balls rotate hypnotically on screen at 33 ? revolutions per minute. Each time the balls turn, the sound of a scratch from a run-out groove of a different record is added. The intensity of sound builds until at 1 minute in, the balls spin off screen accompanied by the sound of a needle skidding across a record. |
33 ? RPM, installation booth at Netwerk Center Aalst, Belgium 2010 |
Automaton, 2006. HD video with sound. 6 mins (looping) Automaton is an eloquently choreographed tracking shot around the black and chromed curves of a drum kit, whilst percussionist Steve Noble performs a dynamic, improvised 'solo'. Filmed in a single take using motion control technology, the opening shot exactly mirrors the closing one, which enables seamless looping during exhibition. |
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Automaton, 2006
Production shot with Steve Noble, motion control rig and Viper HD Filmstream Camera |
Looping video, 7.24 mins. Brown presentation cubicle with carpet, LCD Monitor and speakers (dimensions variable). The video of the Ultimate Brown Sound Record was played on loop in a brown presentation booth at Netwerk Aalst, Belgium 2010 |
The Ultimate Brown Sound, 2010 (video still) |
HD video with sound, props and synchronised light show. 9 mins A recording of a collaborative performance with artist Guy Bar Amotz was presented, after the fact, in the same space where it took place. The set and props used in the performance were left in-situ and the original lighting effects used in the video were played back synchronously in the space. The performance was private but the residual video played on hauntingly in the space for the duration of the exhibition. The Hair of the Dog was curated by Reece Jones at Block 336 Brixton, London, 2012. |
HD video projection with a sountrack by Sonofapup, 13 mins. Landfall was shot at night in the harbour of Peurto Los Cabos, Mexico. The lights used to help boats navigate safely in and out of the harbour flash asynchonously in the dark. The hypnotic film is accompanied by an unsettling soundtrack, which mixes synthesised sound with field-recordings made live on site. |
Puerto Los Cabos harbour navigation beacons during the day |
Aerobics Spots (dark), 2017. HD video with sound. 5.15 mins Aerobics Spots consists of two complimentary videos, which cannot be viewed at the same time. The source material is a slowed down, blurry video of fluorescently attired dancers engaged in Aerobics. The'dark' screen has a black mask with cut out holes revealing circles of moving coloured light, the 'light' screeen, revealed later on, has a mask of white dots overlaid on-top of dancers wearing fluorescent costumes. The soundtrack is a low-frequency, muffled rhythm, which plays at a remote distance from the screens. |
Aerobics Spots (light), 2017. HD video with sound. 5.15 mins Aerobics Spots featured in the 2017 exhibition: A Conversation along the Highway of Brotherhood and Unity |
Laser, speaker, dielectric mirror, photograph and sound. Dimensions and duration variable Laser and Standing Stone is a moving image work created using a laser and sound. A thin laser-beam travels high across the gallery space and strikes a speaker with a small, laser-grade mirror mounted on its surface. Intermittent sound plays through the speaker and causes the laser to make indexical, geometric patterns as it in-turn strikes the surface of a photograph. The photograph of a neolithic standing stone was taken by the artist in Avebury, Wiltshire in 1984 Exhibited in PLUNK, BOUM, KRASH, ZZZT at Laure Genillard Gallery, London |
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Video documentation of Laser and Standing Stone, 2019 (3 mins) Moving image work with laser, speaker, sound and photograph |