Layla Curtis (London)
Traceurs: to trace, to draw, to go fast
Traceurs: to trace, to draw, to go fast is a series of Artist’s films which explore the navigation of the urban landscape through Parkour. Using a heat sensitive camera, artist Layla Curtis filmed the unorthodox movements and alternative routes of traceurs (practitioners of Parkour) as they moved through the city.
Parkour is an urban acrobatic activity dedicated to moving from one place to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. A traceur’s objective is to travel uninhibited by obstacles great or small, finding an uninterrupted flowing course by pushing the limits of urban architectural functionality. Like skateboarders, traceurs confront the urban fabric and through their practice are some of our most acute architectural critics. As the highly disciplined and skilled traceurs move through the urban environment they appear to leave no mark.
Curtis uses a thermal imaging camera to record the residual warmth of footprints and hand-marks left on walls, trees and railings as the traceurs traverse the city. The resulting series of films are grainy, a kind of temporal drawing in black and white. The viewer is invited to watch almost still, greyish images of walls, trees, and roofs until a shock of white fills the screen for an instant as the traceurs leap between obstacles. Gradually all traces of activity fade away and we are left once again with the grainy blank façade of the city.
Parkour is an urban acrobatic activity dedicated to moving from one place to another as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body. A traceur’s objective is to travel uninhibited by obstacles great or small, finding an uninterrupted flowing course by pushing the limits of urban architectural functionality. Like skateboarders, traceurs confront the urban fabric and through their practice are some of our most acute architectural critics. As the highly disciplined and skilled traceurs move through the urban environment they appear to leave no mark.
Curtis uses a thermal imaging camera to record the residual warmth of footprints and hand-marks left on walls, trees and railings as the traceurs traverse the city. The resulting series of films are grainy, a kind of temporal drawing in black and white. The viewer is invited to watch almost still, greyish images of walls, trees, and roofs until a shock of white fills the screen for an instant as the traceurs leap between obstacles. Gradually all traces of activity fade away and we are left once again with the grainy blank façade of the city.
