Sam Austen (London, 1986) lives and works in London where he graduated from the Royal Academy Schools. Early animated cinema, graphic novels, horror film, surrealism and science fiction are particular influences on his work. He produces 16mm films that utilise a range of in-camera multi-layered special effects, shooting an array of studio built objects, materials and texts. Austen is interested in creating an awareness of the image as a physical entity, something that wrestles with its non-physical nature, wrangling with an excessively expanding eye that flirts with both the virtual and the real. His fantastical and abstract landscapes house indefinable shapes. The films lucidly explore a relationship between physicality and transience, referencing early pioneers of abstract cinema. Unusual styles and techniques using light and colour are metamorphosed sculpturally in Austen’s films. The dancing abstract patterns and use of fast-paced music creates a surreal and unnerving experience in which the narrative is in a continual process of being lost and found.
His work has been shown at various institutions in the United Kingdom.