To Absent Friends

1990, 50 Minutes

To Absent Friends is an art film with a difference. Artist Paula Dawson is recognised around the world as a producer of challenging and innovative works that require a particular technical expertise. This program documents the making of one of Paula’s holographic installations. It explores the philosophies of time and space, as the artist takes you on a journey into an exciting art form - holographic sculpture.

The work itself, entitled “To Absent Friends”, is a fully operational Australian bar. Holograms recorded during a New Year’s Eve party replace all the reflective surfaces in the bar - the juke box top, the TV set, the glass ball decorations - with captured reflections from the same room at another time, in another space. The main picture plane in the film is the three large laser transmission holograms that replace the mirrors behind the bar. Their picture plane symbolises the division between past and future.

This program presents a unique opportunity to view the entire installation with the guidance of the artist who created it.

© 2011 National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.