Switching On The Mountain

This two-channel video and sound work is composed of over 80 short clips, shown as an endless loop on two synchronised monitors. The work observes the endlessly necessary repetitive human labour engaged in turning the mountain into a space for human habitation and pleasure. As many of the Mountainworks, it questions how we assume responsibility for and maintenance of those precarious environments we hold temporarily in our care. From early morning, when the first buttons are pressed and levers are turned, until the last machines conclude their snow management late at night, energy runs up and down the mountain. While observational in nature, the work doesn’t function as a straight documentary but forms its own rhythm, tempo and imaginative space. Using a percussive montage of sound and image the work aims to think through different time scales: mountain time, machine time and human time. Using a percussive montage of sound and image the work aims to think through the complex relations between human, machine and mountain.