Sunday 15 February 2009

the memory of moths
the memory of moths is a stop-motion dance film created to exist inside a box. The box is suspended on a shelf or as a tower-like structure. Both the ladder and the box are burnt, charcoaled and a residue of this blackness is transferred onto the audiences fingers  as they climb. The audience must climb the ladder and press their face close to peer inside the peep-hole to witness the moth within, flame residue leaving a smudge, a kiss on the cheek. The film was originally motivated by the Quay Brothers use of animation; animating inanimate objects to create life-like movement and characters I wanted to use stop-motion to disrupt and interrupt human movement (appropriated choreographic phrases from Bausch's Cafe Muller) to instigate another perspective where the human becomes animal, insect like and almost verging on the mechanical.





Bristol Contemporary Open, Paintworks Gallery (2008) 
Mamu Gallery, Budapest (2008) 
Creative Art & Design Dept, University West of England (2009)
Filmmaker and dancer -  Mel Shearsmith. 
Filmed at the Arnolfini, Bristol.

1 comment:

Charlotte Nichol/Gompertz said...

I love this... was it still shots...and the sound what was it?