Landscape and the Moving Image

Book excerpt: Essays explore how the moving image mediates our relationship to and understanding of landscapes. Catherine Elwes takes readers on a journey through the twin histories of landscape art and experimental moving image to reveal how they coalesce in the work of artists from the 1970s to the present day. Written in a clear, engaging style and drawing on a wide geographical sampling, Elwes considers issues that have preoccupied film and video artists over the years, ranging from ecology, gender, race, performativity, conflict, colonialism, and our relationship to the nonhuman creatures with whom we share our world. The book conveys Elwes's belief that artists can provide an embodied, emotional response to landscape, which is an essential driver in the urgent task of combating the environmental crisis we now face. Enlivened by the author's own experiences as a video artist, writer, and curator and informed by conversations with fellow practitioners, the book offers an informed, personal view of the subject.