A quiet xmas is a nice, strange time to work
Devising during a quiet period and welcoming newbies to the team!
Working on Family Tree in the studio over a quiet Xmas. Nice strange time to work - echoes in the halls, no one around, enjoyable silences, crazy moments of lost and found, Been looking at old VHS - C video tapes I recorded in India back in 1996. Exhilarating and sweet to jump across time to 26 years ago. Still devising materials with some core elements in place - vibrating bass sound and loops and a 'visualiser' - real image projector circa fifteen years ago that lets you see things as well as photos - I love it very much. Things become companions in a solo space.
A story. My Father asked/told me to do some filming when I was in Calcutta back in 1996 to work with theatre activists Jana Sanskriti. He didn't want family home videos, travel videos, theatre videos but asked me to film the family house, to see if there were any cracks in it, or work needing doing. Long shots of stairs and walls, prayer rooms and door frames and grill iron work - great to watch now although I had hoped to find more cracks. And some incidental shots of Nandarani my grandmother looking directly into the camera. She was very filmic and calm, unlike me, who has a face that can't keep still.
We have the fab Sarah Levinsky on the team as well now and she has been working closely with me, kicking me along, laughing, groaning. Great to collaborate with her - exposing, warm, and remembers to make us eat. And we also welcome Ellen Moule, marketing and digital queen and Vikki Cox - techno savante. Happy days - our team gets bigger and bigger! Solo does not mean having to be alone........