Apparent Time2024

'Apparent Time' (the sister work to 'Mean Time') is a film essay that considers specific objects and images which exist, or no longer exist as a result of specific historical events such as the testing of nuclear weapons in the Pacific Marshall Islands between 1946 and 1958 which resulted in the radical unmaking of islands.

Formed from a handful of archival photographs, slides, and postcards, footage of the un-doing of a piece of woven fabric, and the erasure of a tattoo.

The film’s central subject is a photograph titled, 'Photo 9 - Boat on the spot where Elugelab once stood, now a crater, 1972’ taken in Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 20 years after the nuclear device ‘Mike’ was detonated there, completely vaporising the island of Elugelab.

The film’s audio, which includes excerpts of a drum solo by renowned drummer Kenny Clarke and a monologue drawing on the writings of Trinh T. Minh-ha and Paul Virilio, focuses attention on the seemingly fixed positions presented in the imagery, enabling telescopic views of time and events to be rendered.

‘Apparent Time’ is also the act of measuring time by observing the shadows cast on a surface produced by the sun’s rays falling onto an object.