Fourth Phase Production Arts supplied a BP6 Gold Pani projector to artist Joanna Jones to realise her dramatic projected work on Dover’s famous white cliffs over the Easter weekend. The project was part of the Arts Council’s Year of The Artist initiative. Joanna’s idea was to combine the structures and textures of a cliff face with the structures and textures of a painted layer created by herself into a huge outdoor abstract painting. The painted layer was photographed as a 6 cm X 6 cm transparency by Ute Schendel which was then produced as a large format Cibachrome Pani slide by Wyatt Enever of DHA. Production Arts Emma Hutchison and Dominic Airs visited the site and ran a camera obscura to establish the lens needed, the exact size the artwork should be and the optimum positioning of the projector. They used a 22cm lens and a throw distance of 50 metres to produce a 35 metre square image. The projector was housed in a specially constructed enclosure for protection against adverse weather conditions and inquisitive members of the public. The projector was switched on before dusk at 7.30pm and off again at midnight when the site closed. At 5am, the site opened again and the projector was fired up so the painting could be seen going through its continuum of changes until it had dissolved completely, leaving only the naked cliff face in full daylight. This process could be seen from dusk on Good Friday until dawn on Easter Monday. The innovative idea proved an enormous success. People came from all over the South of England to see the projections and to enjoy other events at Samphire Hoe during the weekend.
