Tacita Dean CBE, Kodak 2006. Tate. © Tacita Dean, courtesy Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery, New York/Paris.
Kodak 2006 documents the making of 16mm film stock inside a factory about to go out of business
Tacita Dean both celebrates the beauty of analogue filmmaking and mourns its demise. Today digital tools have almost completely replaced photochemical film equipment. Kodak was shot on 16mm film in one of the last places to make this type of film stock. It shows the Kodak factory in Chalon-sur-Saône, France. Dean made the film just before the plant permanently stopped production.
Photochemical film is produced in darkness. On the day of shooting, the factory was running a test, giving Dean a rare opportunity to capture it with the lights on. Long static shots show details ofmachinery and staff working or taking breaks. The hum of equipment can be heard in the background. A red ‘safelight’, used for working with light sensitive film, recurs throughout the film as well as in the entrance to the projection space.
Dean has worked mainly with analogue film since the early 1990s. She believes digital technologies cannot replace its unique qualities. She especially values the surprises the material brings. Digital technology, Dean says, ‘neither breathes nor wobbles, but tidies up our society.’ Her work often explores disused structures and materials that once stood as visions of the future. Here Dean reflects on film itself as a technology on the brink of extinction.
Since Dean made this film, Kodak have started producing small amounts of moving image film again. This is due in part to the artist’s campaign to save film.