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Misc. Leaflet 2/12, Visual Drama, Fiona Tait

Extract: The curtain is drawn, and the projector is switched on. There is a whirring sound, and the door closes as though by itself. In this sealed vessel one of the participants swims in to focus; she is immersed in an aperture of light.

Click here for the full version of my contribution for the Jane Arden Project.

An image of Kissingtree, the house in which Jacquetta Hawkes spent the final years of her life. In it boarders of trees and plants obscure the home – this outermost film of private life, somehow stilled and peacefully interior. I imagine the archeologist, her knees rested on a flat, old-fashioned, cushion formed like two plastic circles squeezed tight together, carefully positioning seeds to grow in the damp earth. I imagine a bird overhead, time momentarily caught up in a childish delight – how quickly it all seems to change, and how slow it all is. I think of her own film of Barbara Hepworth’s sculptures, pictures cut from their surroundings and placed in a montage of drama and hills – the archeologist brings deep time to surface structures, with Priaulx Rainier’s strange compositions sweeping through.