Joseph Potts - Aerial Navigation 04

Footage taken from 1000 feet high over the Smethwick transport mecca of road, rail and
canal collage with images from yesteryear. A pause for reflection from an unseen angle in the
sky, 'Aerial Navigation' offers and reflects the sense of motion,travel and time in the manmade
Galton Valley Canal. Early film footage is digitally merged with video taken from a recent helicopter flight over the Birmingham Main Line Canal to create an installation in Smethwick Pumpstation. The work
shows the post-industrial landscape still provides awe and spectacle when its achievements
are put in perspective.

For Beyond the Cut Joseph is also creating a documentary portrait film giving
insight into the creative practice of the commissioned artists.*

Joseph is a Birmingham based video artist and filmmaker who enjoys working in a wide range of styles from narrative fiction to abstract expressionism. His recently commissioned film 'Lahore Drifting Vistas' explored notions of identity and cinema in 'Lollywood', Pakistan, while his work with the Birmingham collective 'modulate' has focused on the poetics of city spaces. In all his work Joseph has a keen sense of the psychology and architecture of the environment as means to exploring change.

Text taken from Beyond the Cut event catalog April 2004

Photos:
1( top):Film still from Beyond the Cut
2: Joseph Potts. Photo Bob Bird
* Joseph's film Beyond the Cut in now complete - for more information on this contact The Public