Schwebebahn

Darren Almond British

Not on view

This film was made on Europe’s only suspended urban rail line, the Wuppertal Schwebebahn in Germany. Inaugurated in 1901, the "floating railway" is both archaic and futuristic—the perfect vehicle for Almond’s hallucinatory, almost hypnotic transformations of time and space. The artist used a primitive handheld Super 8 camera for the crude beauty of its hazily colored images; he then inverted and reversed the footage while also slowing its speed. One of the film’s most stunning effects is that it encourages confusion between what the mind knows (the monorail is in the air above the river, streets, and houses) and what is seen (a train passing through an upside-down world).

Schwebebahn, Darren Almond (British, born Appley Bridge, 1971), Single-channel digital video, transferred from Super-8 film, black-and-white and color, sound, 12 min.

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Still

Schwebebahn, Darren Almond (British, born Appley Bridge, 1971), Single-channel digital video, transferred from Super-8 film, black-and-white and color, sound, 12 min.
Schwebebahn, Darren Almond (British, born Appley Bridge, 1971), Single-channel digital video, transferred from Super-8 film, black-and-white and color, sound, 12 min.
Schwebebahn, Darren Almond (British, born Appley Bridge, 1971), Single-channel digital video, transferred from Super-8 film, black-and-white and color, sound, 12 min.
Schwebebahn, Darren Almond (British, born Appley Bridge, 1971), Single-channel digital video, transferred from Super-8 film, black-and-white and color, sound, 12 min.
Schwebebahn, Darren Almond (British, born Appley Bridge, 1971), Single-channel digital video, transferred from Super-8 film, black-and-white and color, sound, 12 min.
Schwebebahn, Darren Almond (British, born Appley Bridge, 1971), Single-channel digital video, transferred from Super-8 film, black-and-white and color, sound, 12 min.
Schwebebahn, Darren Almond (British, born Appley Bridge, 1971), Single-channel digital video, transferred from Super-8 film, black-and-white and color, sound, 12 min.

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