A Rural Idyll
In the Forest Garden
Inner Landscapes
Absent Presence
Trace
Photomontage
Performative Drawing
Act of Listening
About
@hortus_silvam
1998
Performance; Residency; Film; Sound; Writing
Resident for 10 days in this empty Victorian house awaiting development at the Spa not far from the site of the Crystal Palace in London.
16mm colour film
Camera: Jesse Chambers
Residence: 10 days
the garden is a wilderness reminiscent
sweet smelling fruits and flowers
vast, empty, fin de siècle rooms, echoing
windows stretching to the ceiling
architectural details drably adapted to
the demands of modern living
thick dust, thick spider webs clinging to disuse
vast regal stairwell, climbing
numbered doors in the upper rooms
light penetrating the dark interior
distinct servant quarters listening behind doors
breathlessly up three floors to the roof
an audible voice, listening
The artist ensnared by a blindfolded, and a crinoline-structured costume creating hindered, blundering movements as she roamed from room to room, trying to remember the layout. With sight denied, she submitted to a heightened awareness of sound which guided her movements. Audio recordings of her presence captured her presence and absence from the empty rooms.
Location: 35 Beulah Hill, London
A performance work from the series Trace, made in the 1990s, documented on film and further explored through the transfer to analogue and digital media.
scar, trauma, memory, water
© Sophie Standford