A Rural Idyll
In the Forest Garden
Inner Landscapes
Absent Presence
Trace
Photomontage
Performative Drawing
Act of Listening
About
@hortus_silvam
2012-2021
Moving image; composed soundscape; writing; drawing
The trauma felt for the child who fledges.
Split-screen, single channel colour and black and white HD video with a composed stereo soundscape
Cinematic screening: 1 mins 42 sec
Gallery | Site specific exhibition: continuous loop with sound-headphones or conventional speakers recommended for more detailed listening.
captive emancipation
relinquishing
the burden of responsibility
alleviating our separation
without eye contact
our ways diverge
After the fraught, intense slow hours and fast years of nurturing a child into the world, the feeling of absence is devastating; though here the sense of escape is ambiguous. Portrait was made in collaboration with family members: the artist’s son drew the wings, the artist’s partner operated the video camera, together they were made complicit in the artist’s impending sense of trauma. The juxtaposing soundtrack of field recordings tremble with suppressed anxiety and anticipation.
Absence Presence is an ongoing project of visual laments, exploring inter-generational aspects of loss and grief and abandonment.
Location: Suffolk/London grief, trauma, child
2025 screened as part of Dialogues by Sophie Standford (UK) DIVFUSE Film Archive No.1 with a theme on domesticity.
grief, trauma, child
© Sophie Standford