Object #8 (pause and turn)

Daniel Crooks is best known for his video and photographic works that distort space and time. He often uses a ‘time slice’ method where an image recorded with his camera is dissected into thin strips and digitally stitched back into the scene while warping its linearity. Depending on the editing technique, Crooks cans create staccato or hypnotically fluid rhythms.

Similar ideas inform Crooks’ more recent sculptural practice which translates two-dimensional forms into three-dimensional space, as in Object #8 (pause and turn). This four-metre-tall sculpture is made from 1200 pieces of plywood that each represent a computer-generated image of the artist’s body in motion. The original footage, recorded at 60 frames per second, captured parts of Crooks’ limbs as he walked within a confined space. He describes the final work as a ‘self-portrait’, albeit it is one that is heavily abstracted. As in all of Crooks’ work, it redefines our perception of time and space in ways both unexpected and mesmerising.