Stability of the System, The - Litvintseva/Mallet

The Stability of the System is an exploration into the material agency of images and of forms and their ability to call each other into being. The film begins with a mathematical point willing itself into dimensional existence, inventing/discovering space, then time. Shot on the volcanic island of Lanzarote, the film’s images are eruptions willed into existence by the creative act of the molten rock. The landscape absorbs all subjectivity, hallucinating the tragic death of Robert Smithson in its monochrome of endless black lava fields and scorching white of a cloudless sky. In the end the filmmaker dissolves into the landscape, no longer able to see - the landscape sees for her. Sasha Litvintseva recently screened work at Close-Up Film Centre, London, Carlos/Ishikawa Gallery, London, Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel, Image Movement, Berlin and has had solo exhibitions at the AC Institute, New York and Super Dakota Gallery, Brussels in 2016. She was born in Russia and lives and works in London. Isabel Mallet recently screened work at the International Film Festival, Rotterdam, The Inland Art Festival, Cornwall and has had exhibitions at Lima Zulu, London, Tate St. Ives, Cornwall and Charlton Gallery, London in 2016. She was born in the USA and lives and works in London. Disc 2 featurette includes a new performative interview film Splitting Rocks directed by Sasha Litvintseva, Isabel Mallet & Gordon Shrigley.