I’m especially happy that the film will focus on the British artist who was the subject of my last ACE funded project, Through An Artist’s Eye. (TAAE)
The title of this project is simply, Gift.
For those who don’t know about this TAAE, the artist in question is Felicia Browne, who died in the Spanish Civil War in August 1936. I worked with an archive of drawings and letters held at Tate Britain in collaboration with poet, Jenny Rivarola, to create a series of responses to her life and works. During this process I made contact with some of Felicia’s relations, including her nephew Peter Marshall whose amazing generosity to me included a gift of the tea set Felicia bought from Berlin in 1932 as a wedding present for his mother.
I still have to pinch myself when I think of the surreal moment last September when Peter’s email came through offering it to me as an unconditional gift. Each day I get to gaze on it, as it sits in a glass fronted cabinet in my kitchen, and wonder at the physical connection it affords to the life of this extraordinary woman – she was the first British volunteer to die in the Civil War and the only female combatant. She is a unique figure in the history of this conflict.
So I’ve been sitting with the idea of making a response and waiting for the opportunity and allowing the project to develop.
My first step was to write a short poetic response, which follows on from my collaboration with Jenny whose work for TAAE included coaching me to improve my poetry skills. From this the idea of a short art film was born; a logical progression as my fascination for the medium of film has been ignited by previous film/video collaborations. These in turn sparked off a series of my own video work through which I taught myself to use iMovie, but this will be my first opportunity to learn about editing from a professional on more sophisticated software.
What interests me most is the juxtaposition of word and image as immersive narration – I hope we can pull this off!
To say I’m excited is an understatement. My schedule is slightly pushed back due to jury service but Simon Haynes (my filmmaker) and I have our diaries coordinated and are ready to go. Simon and I have worked together before and I know I will be in safe and very patient hands.
To be continued!
