Time as Perspective was shot in the Texan desert and shows huge oil pumps constantly repeating the same mechanical movement.  Their meditative sculptural quality in the vast and arid  landscape, counteracts the social and political issues caused by the exploitation of natural resources which the film touches upon. Its temporal horizon is hard to fixate – it could be both, a futuristic vision or a historical document. Yet, the drilling pumpjacks keep running in loops – a symbol for progress and exploitation that has been reduced to a mechanical repetitive rhythm. They move but never change, a monotonous labor that invokes consistency. No progression – just movement that becomes monumental. Thousands of pumpjacks print invisible repetitive patterns into the earth – or onto the film. Their “writing” remains hidden as it seems to travel through ayers of earth. But it also points to the term “Peak Oil”,the moment when the maximum rate of petroleum extraction is reached.

 

Time as Perspective, 2012

35mm film, color, optical sound; 12 min

Images 1, 2, 3, 4: Film still © Rosa Barba
Image 5: Installation view at Kunsthaus Zürich, 2012 © Rosa Barba

Time as Perspective, 2012 has been on display at the following locations:

Kunsthaus Zürich, 2024

Meyer Riegger, Berlin, 2015

MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, 2015

Albertinum, Dresden, 2015

Biennale of Sydney, 2014

Bergen Kunsthall, 2013

Gio Marconi, Milan, 2013

ICA, London, 2013

Gene Siskel Center, Chicago, 2013

Filmforum, Gorizia, 2013

Kunsthaus Zürich, 2012

Time as Perspective, 2012 has been screened at the following locations:

Teatrino di Palazzo Grassi, 2023

Lo Schermo dell’Arte, Florence, 2022

Babylon, Berlin, 2022