The video-work ‘Orbital’ creates a hypnotic ‘map’ from the routes that orbit through and around the city of London. Visualising the dizzying energy states that define a contemporary city, the work is built from the three circular pathways that have been imposed upon the metropolis.
At the centre of the image is video shot from the cab of an underground train as it makes one complete circuit of London’s ‘Circle Line’. The middle ring was shot on a speeding motorbike orbiting around the North and South Circular urban freeways, and the outer ring shows video from one circuit of The M25 Orbital Motorway. These circular routes have assumed a mythical status within the folklore of the city – becoming something like a medieval city’s perimeter battlements, or the circular rings of Dante’s inferno.
All three circular journeys were recorded in real time and have been combined into this single hypnotic mandala.