Seeing Hand (2017)
27', 4K Video

Seeing Hand was made by Goodwin during his first trip to China, where he spent 30 days in Shanghai, creating 100s of intense drawings, with pencil and pen and ink. The 27-minute film maps Goodwin's exploration of locations across the city and the people he encountered. Drawing from direct observation, Goodwin's camera documents his studies at the moment of their making. The viewer is immersed in the atmospheres and sounds that surround Goodwin as he works, seeing first hand his drawing process, as he negotiates and attempts to decode what he experiences. Implied in Seeing Hand is a desire to go beyond the seen, the touch of the drawing becoming an intensified means of engagement, opening up a heightened relationship with the observed. Some of the studies are fleeting, diagrammatic and incomplete, others detailed and worked up. Seeing Hand explores ideas of transformation and translation, echoing themes of intimacy and anonymity in the public realm, that run through much of Goodwin's work. Seeing Hand documents his first encounter with a distinct culture, with a complex history, ancient and contemporary belief systems and at a time of great development.
 
Seeing Hand was a Launch Pad Shanghai commission for Jane & Dominique Lee