Landmark Memorial Project (2005)

After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, scenes of the film Zoolander (2001) were digitally edited to remove or obscure the Twin Towers before it's release. The idea that we use technology to disguise a truth, or manipulate time and history is intriguing but unsettling. We are used to special effects in movies being used to embelish the visual effect or action, but the notion of removing a building to comply with our social sensibilites is disconcerting to me. We wouldn't for example, just as easily remove a deceased actor from a film.

Perhaps it is disconcerting because it disregards the memory of it's existance. When something is no longer there anymore, we can recollect it through personal experience or photo and film material. The Landmark Memorial Project is a series of short films of famous landmarks which have been digitally removed from the scene. The films require us to recollect these sights and reassert there existance. The empty scenes are both haunting and austere, and address the notion of permanance in modern times.

With Henry Hobson

[Watch Landmark Memorial Project film]