Arts and entertainment

Traceurs stage 3 – final exhibition

In response to the almost impossible challenge of recording the virtually invisible activity of parkour, Layla investigated the potential of using thermal imaging cameras to record the heat traces of footprints and handmarks etc left on obstacles and buildings. The resulting series of films is black and white, beautiful and grainy, contrasting with the more familiar highly coloured palette of thermal imaging.

The viewer is invited to watch almost still, greyish images of walls, trees, and roofs until a shock of white fills the screen for an instant as the traceurs leap between obstacles. After this bright flash we notice subtle changes to the grey backgrounds – small white marks where the heat of contact between the body and the environment remain. These heat marks fade away at different speeds depending on the surface (a tree, for example, holds the warm scuff of a handprint for longer than a brick wall) but gradually all traces fade away and we are left once again with the grainy blank façade of the city.

The Chelsea Futurespace gallery was itself developed as a result of planning gain funds from St James Homes’ residential development near Chelsea Bridge in London. The space is dedicated to the work of alumni and staff of Chelsea College of Art and Design which is in Westminster. Layla Curtis studied for her MA at Chelsea College.