Nicky Hamlyn and Neil Henderson both make observational films that are most obviously documentaries when they focus on sites that are fast disappearing. Hamlyn's Gasometers 4 is part of a series of films recording the dismantling of gas holders in North London, while Henderson's Grain Tower centres on a giant power station chimney that has recently been demolished. In both filmmakers' work there is a reciprocal relationship between the subject documented and the mode of shooting and editing, which often involves either a fixed stare or sequences of single frames. A broad and recurrent concern in their work is the transitory nature of objects as images and light, especially in Henderson's reprised Candle films and Hamlyn's fascination with filmic depiction as a mode of interplay between grain and image.
Nicky Hamlyn:
- Polytunnels (2012) 22mins, 16mm, colour, silent
- Gasometers 4 (2015) 8mins, 16mm, colour, silent
- Films (2015) 3mins, video, sound
Neil Henderson:
- Candle (2017) 3mins, 16mm, b/w, silent
- Grain Tower (2016) 10mins, 16mm, colour, sound
- Candle (2017) 3mins, 16mm, colour, silent
- Pool (2012) 10mins, 16mm, colour, silent
The two additional works that Nicky and Neil have chosen to show are Nick Collins' Square and Mountain (2010, 4mins, 16mm, colour, silent) and Robert Morris' Mirror (1971, 9mins, 16mm, b/w, silent).
