Sequential photographs of a city park projected and re-filmed through curved glass vessels and mirrors. Images are fragmented, shifting, kaleidoscopic – an everyday scene made magical.
“Michaela Nettell’s ‘Under Skies’ is an experiment in nature and control … The piece acts as a rescue – an archive of all the little moments and snapshots that would otherwise be lost in the black hole of the city.” ThePostRaum, Issue 2, 2009.
Sound by Tom Simmons | Funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Film and Video Workshop, London
Ratio: 4:3 | Running time: 03:30
My short films and installations describe experiences of memory and perception. I use time-lapse photography and high-speed video to observe patterns and rhythms of nature, drawing attention to phases of movement and small changes over time. Working frame-by-frame through intricate projection and re-capture processes, I manipulate film and video images into illusory sequences that flicker, pulse and swell.
I am fascinated by ways light and glass interact – by the optical effects created when one meets the other, and by our sensory and imaginative reactions to them. I am interested in ways images we receive in the present merge with those we recall from the past – that these are indeterminate and in a constant state of flux. By combining projected moving imagery with glass and mirrored surfaces I find ways to explore these complex and fleeting sensations.
Michaela Nettell graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2007. Her work has been exhibited in galleries throughout Europe and the US including The Tank, New York; Kunstzentrum Z33, Hasselt, Belgium; Gimpel Fils, London; and MyOwnGallery, Milan. She lives and works in London.
Michaela Nettell – London UK
17 Days Video Series 
I really enjoyed looking through your website and seeing all you do with windows and reflections. I think the idea of taking an everyday scene and making it magical is something that photographers do everyday and the fact that you are doing it through glass is like you are making your own camera with a different lens every time you move your camera. The images are beautiful and remind me of viewing life through a “window of opportunity” or “seeing life through a different lens.”