DOGS IN CARS, WAITING (1998)

Dogs in Cars, Waiting (1998)

16mm b&w film, silent, 17 minutes.

The subjects of this film are comprised of four dogs in stationary cars, each dog waiting for its owners’ return. The animals are mainly still, the focus of the film is on the dogs’ facial expressions. These fluctuating expressions convey hope, expectancy, despair and longing. The animals are in limbo, removed from the narrative of human time, the minute facial expressions conveying drama worthy of slapstick comedy, the tragic and the humorous combined.

‘In Dogs in Cars, Waiting the inanimate vehicles are central to the work. Destination, the anticipated point in arrival, has been inverted. The dogs wait for their owners’ return rather than the owners themselves anticipating the arrival of their journey’s end.’

Emma Posey (1998) Techno Sublime in the exhibition catalogue Still, Jane Grant, published by Chapter, Wales.