Far & Near

The film is part of the installation I developed with composer David Power when, in October 2016 I was awarded funds from the Arts Council Grants for the Arts Programme to develop an interdisciplinary body of work. Far & Near, as the project became, was also collaboration with audience, who were invited to contribute memories of loved ones.

Inspired by the phenomenon of the secular memorial – most commonly seen in Britain in the form of memorial benches and plaques on benches in special places to those being remembered, Far & Near’s film shows me dressing a sea-front bench with memorials which were contributed by people in North East Lincolnshire.

The music, composed by David Power was an existing recording of a Ronald Duncan poem he had set a couple of years earlier, which seemed to connect to what we were doing and encourage memory in relation to people and place.