Artist's Film and Video

Martin Sercombe began making artist's films on 16mm in the 1980s, and was closely involved in the independent film workshop movement in the UK. His work explores a hybrid language embracing visual music, electro-acoustic sound design and performance. Much of it is tied closely to specific landscapes and environments. His single screen works have been screened at many international festivals and in touring shows. Maud (2000) featured in a touring retrospective of international video art, curated by Tom Van Vliet. This and other works have been screened on broadcast television and the internet in the USA, UK, Holland, Spain, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong.

Download complete video here

(mp4 ipod format, 62 meg, 320x240 pixels)

Delirium 2006

10 mins DVD video colour £15

Voices by Matt Warren

Delirium was made during an artist's residency, hosted by Raw Space Galleries, Brisbane. Long, hazy exposures in infrared evoke a claustrophobic, heat crazed vision of a city outside of time.

First exhibited at Raw Space Galleries, Brisbane and Hobart, Tazmania, February 2006.

Additional notes here

Download complete video here

(Divx format, 71 meg, 720 X 576 screen size, stereo)

Download mp4 ipod format here

320x240 pixels, 72.5 meg, stereo

Walking, Breathing 2004

13 mins 45 secs DVD video colour £15

Sound by Sianed Jones

A meditation on the elements, solitary journeying and the spirit of wilderness, recorded during a three day hike across the Hardangervidda mountain plateau in Central Norway.

First exhibited at the Norwich Fringe Festival October 2004.

Additional notes here

Download complete video here

(mp4 ipod format 320 x 240 pixels, stereo)

Burano 2003

10 mins DVD video colour £15

An intimate observation of domestic space on a small Venetian island. With music by Jonathan Lambert.

First exhibited at the Norwich Fringe Festival October 2003

Medina 2002

8 mins video colour £15

A journey through the medieval quarter of Tunis. The electroacoustic soundtrack was inspired by the Muslim call to prayer.

First exhibited at the Norwich Fringe Festival October 2002

Download in mp4 (ipod) format here 320 x 180 pixels

The Listening Place 2001

6 mins DVD video widescreen colour £15

A painterly vision of a working day in the life of Cambridge Market.

First exhibited on Anglia Television, UK Sept 2001

Commissioned and distributed by First Take Films

Additional notes here

Download the first 9 minshere.

mp4 ipod version , 320x240 pixels, 49 meg

La Leccion Inglesa 2000

24 mins DVD video colour £15

A portrait of a desolate village in the foothills of the Spanish Pyrenees, with the collaboration of its children.

First exhibited at the World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam, Nov 2001, also Norwich Art Centre and Berdun, Northern Spain.

Additional notes here

Download first 13 mins here

mp4, ipod version 320x240 pixels, stereo, 77 meg

Maud 2000

(With Sianed Jones)

18 mins 40 secs DVD video colour £15

Maud translates the Alfred Tennyson poem about unrequited love into a visual and gestural evocation of despair.

The deconstruction of the words creates a layered and echoing landscape of sound that makes the poem's intense emotions palpable..Maud appears on stage..behind her the sun can still be glimpsed. Like the tortured heart of the crazed man, the band of light twists before it turns into an empty shell and dies. Lies Holtrop WWVF 2000

Exhibited at Garden of Light Cabaret in Bergh Apton, Norfolk August 2000, the World Wide Video Festival, Amsterdam, Nov 2000, and Videotage, Hong Kong 2001.

Millenium Awards For All funded

Additional notes here

Download complete video here

mp4, ipod version 320x240 pixels, stereo 86 meg

Tongues Undone 1998

(With Cris Cheek and Sianed Jones) £15

18 mins 45 secs video colour, DVD

A cross media work, seeking out a hybrid language at the intersections between gestural sound, music, projected image, text and improvised live performance.

First screened at the World Wide Video Festival in Amsterdam Sept 1998.

Arts Council England Funded

Additional notes here

Download Real Video 720 x 576 pixels, high quality rmvb file here ( 78 meg)

Download mp4 version for ipod, 320 x 240 pixels

here (67 meg)

Singing The Horizon 1997

(with Sianed Jones)

10 mins 35 secs DVD video colour £15

A visionary landscape work set on Halvergate Marshes in the Norfolk Broads.

First screened at the World Wide Video Festival in Amsterdam Sept 1997. Also at A British Spring, Fylkingen, and Reel Love Festival, Norwich.

East England Arts Funded

Out of Noah's Ark 1997

15 mins video colour £15

(with Andrea Dates and Sebastian Castagna)

A performance art piece based around the writings of Darwin, cast in digitally manipulated landscapes, with electro-acoustic music by Sebastian Castagna.

First screened at Norwich Art School, July 1997.

Production supported by East England Arts, Pépeniéres Artists in Europe and The Arts Council of England

Download complete film here

mp4 ipod format 320 x 240 pixels, mono, 80 meg

Thera 1984

16 mins 16mm B and W

Ritualised observations in a Greek village at Easter.

First screened Cinema City, Norwich 1984.

Supported by the Arts Council of England.

Further information here

In Motion 1982

13 mins 16mm colour

A visionary film exploring gestural relationships between kinetic text and motion through landscapes.

First Screened at Hyeres Festival, France August 1982. Supported by the Arts Council of England.

Distributed by Lux Distribution and via Media Projects East Ltd.

Download complete film here

mp4 ipod version, 320x240 pixels

East Coast 1981

11 mins 16mm

Seascapes, groynes, wave motions and light phenomena transformed via pixillation and multiple superimpositions in camera.

First screened on BBC 2 July 1981. Supported by the Arts Council of England.

Distributed by Lux Distribution and via Media Projects East Ltd.

Track 1980

7 mins 16mm widescreen

A train journey along a branch line through Kent, choreographed via cyclic, systemised camera movements.

First screened at Berlin Film Festival, August 1980. Distributed by Lux Distribution and via Media Projects East Ltd.

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