Parallel Cipher

Parallel Cipher is a two screen video work in which Charles Danby and Rob Smith move through a forest in total darkness illuminating their way with camera flashes. The blinding flashes imprint momentary images onto their retinas and simultaneously fix these in the video as single frames. The artists can be heard making their way through the darkness in an audio track that records their continual movement, while on the black screens the forest emerges and retreats in flashes of visibility. The forest they move through becomes the multiplied plural site, of folkloric metaphor, post-industrial lumber factory, cinematic fiction and romantic enchantment. In parallel to the suspended screens, light sensors react to the flashes in the videos triggering flash units in the space. This emits a sequence of flashes that are visible in the street through the windows of The Northern Charter, expanding the forest to encroach on the city.