Gemma Pardo

‘Untitled/Sín título’ (vídeo, 5’05’’)

This video shows the gradual approach of a ship nearer to its dock. The frames only allow us to see a fragment of its structure, the water and foam as they splash the hull and, in the background on the horizon, the silhouette of the buildings of a city. Little by little, the heavy floating metal structure begins to fill the whole of the screen, with a soundtrack created by the deafening noise of the ship's engines.

The voyage has ended. With this sequence of images, there is no reference to space, a minimum of information. Is it a cargo ship, a ferry or a passenger liner? The artist obliges the observer to consider a whole series of questions about the kind of voyage, its starting point, the transportation of merchandise by sea, the dangers of navigation in certain areas, and so on.

Gemma Pardo also plays with the purely visual fascination of witnessing the transformation of a descriptive image into an almost abstract one.

Background

Galicia, Spain, 1976

A video artist and photographer born in Galicia, Spain, she lives and works in London.

She studied Film and Video and the London University of the Arts and did a Masters in Fine Arts at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art and Design. One of her videos was chosen for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2007.  In 2008 she participated in the collective exhibition ‘Grounds for Progress CCS Bard Galleries’, at the Hessel Museum in New York. In the same year, Gemma Pardo was awarded the third prize in the 20 Biennale in Ibitha for her project ‘Boats’. 

At the moment, she is showing her video installation, ‘Finisterre’ at the travelling exhibition ‘Coasting’, commissioned by Film & Video Umbrella and organised by the Tate Gallery and Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Britain.