Roz Cran – Seeing Through The Eyes Of The Other
PART 1
It is a grey day in a muddy-looking park. A leafless tree stands alone in urban parkland. Lumpy grass stretches away to a horizon where more bare trees partly obscure a row of low buildings. A tower block rises above them. As I watch, a woman enters the scene, walking purposefully toward the tree from one side. She carries a bag, which she proceeds to place on the ground near the tree. From it, she unpacks a bulky, brown bundle. She takes off her coat and scarf, and packs them in the bag. She takes the bag away, putting it to one side, out of view. The woman returns to the bundle, unfolds it, and carefully steps into the opening of what now appears to be some sort of sack. Pulling up the rim of the sack around her waist like putting on an awkward suit, she gradually tugs and wriggles the heavy material over her body, eventually enclosing every part of her, even her head. Her arms slip into long sleeves, she shuffles nearer to the tree, herself a smaller version. Ready now, the woman raises her arms above her head and settles into position, crows caw, a white dog looks and runs off.*
The woman in the video is Roz Cran. Roz makes videos, objects, books, photographs, prints. Her work is complex and impossible to categorise or sum up with a few tidy words. It deals with those things in life which are not tidy.
*"Tree" by Roz Cran, was filmed in Southwark Park for "Let's Riot", Cafe Gallery Projects, 2006 View the video at http://www.roz2.co.uk/ani09.html
The rest of this article will be posted on Projects Unedited in sections over the next few days. The project, Breaking Ground, is a partnership supported by a NAN New Collaborations Bursary (AN – The Artists Information Company). This article is part of the project. And the partners (Judith Alder and, Roz Cran) will develop a joint residency on an allotment. In addition they are collaborating in the organisation of BMPD (Blue Monkey Professional Development for Artists). The first BMPD event takes place in June 2007 in Eastbourne where they plan to arrange a year-long programme.
