Eleanor MacFarlane

Biography

My Moving Image is non-narrative, poetic and abstract. My subjects are generated by scientific and optical ideas, by way of a philosophical translation into form. So the meaning of my works can be traced back to universal truths concerning light and shade, or the pull of magnetism and how that is akin to psychological tendencies. I never came across a scientific theory or astronomical fact that I couldn’t relate directly to my own thinking, or the human experience. It is as if the Universe is a model of the internal experience, subject to laws, some of which we can comprehend. My work is a quest to translate such nebulous ideas into form.

My practice is also informed by years of photographic experimentation. I have a highly developed aesthetic style, and create images without computer manipulation, tricking the camera into revealing layers of reality. I have an inventive, low-tech approach to work, striving for simple ways to show layers of complexity and paradox. In many ways I see my videos as multi-faceted photographs, or photographs which exist in time rather than on paper.
www.eleanormacfarlane.com