Sam Allen-Chapman
The idea of perspectives. The individual versus the whole world.
Allen-Chapman’s focus on demonstrating, as well as representing, feelings, memories and connections, through art. Whether that was looking back at the Covid-19 pandemic, investigating community within games, exploring the rapidly developing presence of AI, or looking at how conflict resonates with both the individual and the collective. Allen-Chapman’s work has spanned a variety of topics, showcasing a range of personal stories and experiences, bringing with them a range of creative processes, in both physical and digital creation.
Allen-Chapman’s current project carries over his work with film and the integration of VR as the viewing tool and has stemmed from the term ‘Slow Violence’, a phrase first coined by author Rob Nixon, in his 2011 book ‘Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor’. The idea of violence that occurs over time, with a particular transition to the ongoing and detrimental effects of global warming.
The importance of being able to fully comprehend the scale of the issue climate change poses, and the difficulty of naming a singular causation. With a focus on using clips and sound bites from archives and social media platforms, to effectively highlight the damage that has been caused over a significant period, damage that shows no signs of ceasing. These have then been uploaded to an editing programme where they have been manipulated, cut-out, repeated, and overlaid, to produce a short film of collaged imagery and audio.
A reminder. A warning. A call for urgent action.
Screenshots from Allen-Chapman’s Film piece:
Slow Violence, Climate Change - A Short Film
Film and VR
2025
16:9 viewing ratio
Allen-Chapman presents a short film based on the term ‘Slow Violence’, specifically focusing on the ongoing damage climate change is doing to our planet.
Comprised of both archival and stock footage, as well as multiple news recording from social media platforms, most notably YouTube, X, and TikTok, this film draws attention to the issues of deforestation, the disposal of chemical waste, the increasing regularity of natural disasters, mass climate protest, and the so-called ‘agreements’ being reached between world leaders at conferences like COP 29, surrounding climate targets.
These clips have been brough together in the form of a montage, where they have been shortened, split, and layered, as well as audio extracted and altered, accompanied by the song ‘Never Say Die’ by Neoni, acting as the spine of the work, to establish direction and flow, as well as provide elements of contradiction, between the song and the imagery shown.