AXW: SALT LINES has a connection to fine art painting and earlier work of such cinematic pioneers as Brakhage’s MOTHLIGHT. What was your inspiration and how was this actually made?
CB: While conducting research on the subject of salt for another project, I came across two discordant lines of text about Himalayan pink salt. My response, SALT LINES is a visceral one, expressed through finger painting, blotting, brush strokes, cut tape and sprinkled salt, thus foregrounding emotive gestures and haptics as means for expression and interpretation. The hand-layered elements (strips of tape, glue, salt, paint, ink) were fixed to 35mm clear leader and re-photographed with a DSLR camera as the strips were run through a flatbed editor. If there were space, I would cite the works of numerous pioneering and contemporary artists working in direct animation, abstract painting, weaving and collage as inspiration for the process I employed.
AXW: There also seems to be a referral to social concerns in this work. Please tell us about your creative process.
CB: Responding to the constantly shifting visual planes of Salt Lines requires actively choosing where to look; at the surface plane or behind; at areas in soft or sharp focus; or at the emerging or disappearing image?
In ways, this selective seeing relates to the texts. In order for my expressed concern to surface then, the discordant lines of text must be read, collide with each other and the work of the collage. These intersections of texts and image may seem hazy; the connections may appear as remote as the exploitation of distant workers for gourmet pink salt and as puzzling as discerning truth from the shifting and seductive illusions and claims of the global market.
