The Cinematheque

In Person: Chris Welsby

“Welsby’s extraordinary originality lies in the way that he harnesses these natural effects to those of the cinema, allowing both to enhance each other.”

Laura Mulvey, BFI

A paramount figure in the field of landscape filmmaking and a pioneer of moving-image installation in his native England, Chris Welsby has, for over half a century, developed rigorous and much-revered strategies for narrowing the distance between science, nature, and the experimental arts. His 16mm works of the 1970s, made as a member of the seminal London Filmmakers’ Co-operative, evinced a fascination with natural phenomena and the instruments used to measure them. Take, for instance, his Windmill diptych (1973–74), in which variations in wind dictate the rotation (speed, direction) of mirrored windmill blades placed in front of the camera, recording—literally by turns—either the process of its own making or the landscape beyond. Or the masterful Seven Days (1974), ​“a tour de force unlike anything cinema had yet seen” (Fred Camper, Chicago Reader), in which a camera, affixed to an equatorial mount calibrated to the Earth’s axis, captures images triggered by atmospheric change: of the sky when overcast; of the ground when cloudless. In these and much of Welsby’s work to follow, authorial control is surrendered to the elements and the relationship between artist and environment is redrawn.

In the late 1980s, Welsby moved to Canada to teach at Simon Fraser University. This West Coast chapter of his practice was marked by a transition to the burgeoning digital-video realm. With installations like the multichannel At Sea (2003) or live-weather-controlled Trees in Winter (2006), Welsby demonstrated new methods of merging technology and art. Now a professor emeritus and resident of Gabriola Island, he continues to produce captivating, formally disciplined work animated by the landscapes around him.

The Cinematheque and Cineworks Independent Filmmaking Society are pleased to welcome Chris Welsby for an evening devoted to his exceptional work. Welsby will introduce both halves of the program and participate in conversation about his career and creative processes.

Seven Days (20 min. 1974) Stream Line (8 min. 1976) Windmill #3 (10 min. 1974) Sky Light (26 min. 1988)

—intermission—

At Sea (3 min. 2004) Trees in Winter (5 min. 2006) Desert Spring (10 min. 2017) Oxygen (12 min. 2021) Nightfall (8 min. 2024)

All works presented in digital formats.

“Welsby’s work makes it possible to envisage a different kind of relationship between science and art, in which observation is separated from surveillance and technology from domination.”

Peter Wollen, Millennium Film Journal

“Unlike the landscape painters and photographers of the 19th century, I have avoided the objective viewpoint implicit in panoramic vistas or depictions of homogeneous pictorial space. I have instead concentrated on ​‘close up’ detail and the more transient aspects of the landscape, using the flickering, luminous characteristics of the film and video mediums, and their respective technologies, to suggest both the beauty and fragility of the natural world.”

Chris Welsby