The Unearthings
A Rural Idyll
In the Forest Garden
Inner Landscapes
Absent Presence
Trace
Photomontage
Performative Drawing
Act of Listening
About
@hortus_silvam
Dialogue with my Father
single channel colour 16:9 HD video | 7’20” | sound
When does holding on to transitional objects of grief become self-destructive? The heavy bulk of a neglected, domestic, upright piano is pushed around on a concrete floor trying in vain to find the right place, before letting go. Frustration strips the piano of its dignity. Braced, it fights back stoically, belligerent, vibrating a dance to its raucous rumbling. Dainty wheels twist in agony under its defiant weight, before drawing you into a mesmerising journey which gives voice to the piano’s final involuntary creeks and resonances.
2026 screened at In Proximity, Group Show, Norwich Museum and Art Gallery, UK
2025 screened at DIVFUSE Film Archive No.1 with a theme on domesticity, London
ongoing series of paper collage works, 21x30cm
handwritten music manuscript fragments, printed annotated notes, graphite, ink, gouache, photographs, paper
The role of Literary Executor to the Estate of Patric Standford (1930-2014), partly held at the British Library in London and in Suffolk, weighs an enormous sense of responsibility for the artistic career of another. Through manuscript paper and writing implements, the familial piano, Dialogue with my Father is an ongoing project creating a space to converse in the absence; composer father, artist daughter.
| 1. | Now He is Gone 07:21 |
The heavy bulk of my father’s now neglected, domestic, upright piano performs through reluctant, involuntary creeks and resonances.
© Sophie Standford, 2022
Sound and Moving Image Collection, British Library
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