Date
1 June 2015
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The Ugliest Thing I Love: Emily Kai-Bock extolls the virtues of security lighting

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Date
1 June 2015

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Montreal-based director Emily Kai Bock has established a reputation for a mightily impressive brand of innovative and atmospheric visuals. Her music videos for the likes of Grimes, Grizzly Bear and Sebastien Schuller have been feted across the online world and she also boasts a stunning photography portfolio. She has chosen security lighting as an unlikely, ugly thing she finds beautiful…

“Recently, I’ve been staring into places lit by security lights – illuminating the windows of closed shops, construction sites, swimming pools. These night lights are left on for vacant spaces, to deter vandals and trespassers and to ensure they won’t be forgotten or left unattended.

“Being so functional, it’s intrinsically not meant to be something inviting or beautiful. This kind of lighting communicates to people that they are not welcome in those places, which is a barrier for them to appreciate it. But the low-key nature of security lights is also very cinematic – common spaces are recontexualized, their lit vacancy is similar to museums’ display cases. In that context you are able to study society more objectively. Re-looking at a space, absent of people and function – objects entombed in a void.

“Living in an industrial area of Montreal, I started to notice the interiors of these buildings and construction sites at night. I started to photograph them as examples of low-key lighting on found still-life – public spaces under one or two light sources, which is pretty unusual.

”I think a lot of inspiration for my Grimes video started from biking by this one soccer field on my way home that would keep its lights on all night. I remember being really in awe of the effect they had on the atmosphere and colour of the field. The last music video I just directed was a film noir-based, low-lit narrative. Sometimes when I notice the same thing again and again in the world, I know it’s going to make its way into my work somehow.”

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