Exhibition Preview: Neil Mansfield

COLLECTION | Projector Project

About half a dozen 16mm and Super 8 film projectors
Purchased between 1987 - 2012 from op shops and 2nd hand dealers.

A Super8 projector in action

On the personal significance of the collection, Neil Mansfield writes: "I started making films with super8 film in 1987, and made numerous experimental short films and alternative music videos with 16mm film in the 90's. My first feature film, Fresh Air, 1998, was shot on Super 16 film and featured numerous scratchy 16mm films-within-films that were shot on 16mm film then projected and re-shot.

Now, in the HD age, I have returned to the format I love. My last short film, The Owl in the Snow, 2010 was shot on B&W 16mm film with a wind-up camera in Alaska during winter and screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2011. And, I intend to keep working with 16mm film into the future."

Still from The Owl in the Snow, 2010, image courtesy of Neil Mansfield

COLLECTOR | Neil Mansfield

Film maker, Screen & Media teacher at Newcastle Art School, and seasoned collector.

Mansfield's extensive collection of cameras and projectors are not the only thing to make an appearance in his films. Streetsweeper, 2007, shot around Newcastle over four days is based around Mansfield's collection of found notes, lists, letters, photos, post-its, drawings, cards and other ephemera found on the streets and collected by Mansfield since 1995. See more on this incredible collection here: Found notes - Collected ephemera

"Neil Mansfield uses the found notes as props, while the text in the notes becomes the dialogue of unseen characters in Streetsweeper.
"It started about the time when I was making my first movie, in 1999," he says. "Without being too academic about it, I guess it's what archaeologists do, the go and they try and piece together what a society is like from the fragments that are left behind. I like that ephemeral thing that it's an insight into what's going on inside the houses that are around you."" - From Newcastle feature film debuts at international festival, Anthony Scully, ABC 1223

Trailer from Streetsweeper, 2007, Directed by Neil Mansfield

Link to ABC 1223 Interview with Neil Mansfield on Streetsweeper: Newcastle feature film debuts at international festival

Link to Neil Mansfield's blog with more information on other film projects: neilmansfield.wordpress.com
 
We are very excited to be able to exhibit some of Neil Mansfield's wonderful collections in Artifacts Aired. Be sure to visit us at the Front Room Gallery from Jun 6 - 21 to view these incredible examples of technological advancements up close & personal.