FILM SCREENING >>>
"The archive that holds only dismembered memories
the fruit thrown away in favour of the root"
NOAH'S ARK (2010)
'NOAHS'S ARK' (2010)

THURSDAY 26th October 2023, 12pm - 1:30pm (screening time TBC) >>> Manchester Poetry Library (Grosvenor East, Cavendish Street, Manchester, M15 6BG)

TICKETS >>> (FREE) >>> https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/noahs-ark-film-screening-tickets-731813242107

Manchester Poetry Library are presenting my 2010 film NOAH'S ARK as their FIRST EVER FILM SCREENING in partnership with the North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University. I really wish I could be there in person, but sadly there is no ark to carry me over the water in time. However, I am so proud that the film is being shown again, and especially in this context.

When I was working on the film in 2010 with Nathan Jones, I felt his role as a poet might help to interpret and even clarify the obscure collage structure of the film. Instead he translated it, or mistranlated it, adding additional narratives on top, unlocking further associations with the images onscreen, and provoking intuition and gut feeling through his incantations. The film became more complex and far less literal. The themes became deeper, both more personal (who is 'Morwenna'?) and more universal ("the fruit thrown away in favour of the root"). As we toured the film (along with musician Carl Brown whoi wrote the score),Nathan would often change the words, and so I began to realise the text itself wasn't necessarily sacred. Hopefully one day we can make a new interpretation.

CONFERENCE TALK >>>
TEXTILE & PLACE 2023
'FABRICATIONS' video presentation

Tuessday 17th Oct, 12:10pm >>> ‘Panel 2: Regenerative Acts’ >>> Manchester School of Art, Benzie Building
Part of the British Textile Biennial

TICKETS >>> https://www.textileandplace.co.uk/

I’m talking (zooming) at the Textile and place conference 2023 in Manchester as part of ‘Panel 2: Regenerative Acts’, (12:10pm GMT) alongside Naitiemu Nyanjom (@naitiemu) and Ifeoma Anyaeji. We will each be sharing a video presentation, followed by a Q&A.

I’ll be sharing ‘FABRICATIONS’ - a 14 minute video version of my article of the same name, which looks at the displacement of long-standing South Asian textile firms from Crusader Mill, Manchester, by developers Capital and Centric. I’ll also talk about and my knitting work in response to the events, and questioning what impact (if any) they made, or purpose they might still serve.

Why am I still talking about this? Well, history is easily forgotten (or erased). I also think MCR needs to properly engage with it’s textile production communities to support them and help them develop sustainably. First part of that means acknowledging their contribution to industrial heritage and understanding the various pressures they face.

The event is part of the British Textile Biennial taking place between 29 Sept and 29 Oct https://britishtextilebiennial.co.uk.

So, Knitting nerds, urban geographers, and those interested in the history of Manchester - you should check it out! You can attend the conference in person.

Tickets here https://www.textileandplace.co.uk

WORKSHOP >>>
ATELIER de POÈSIE de la LUNE
13 - 16h (drop in) - 1st October, 2023
Quai 5160 - Maison de la culture de Verdun

I am running a super simple drop-in poetry workshop in which I invite people to write a short metaphor about the moon, as part of my project "La Lune est..". Participants will write a small poetic lunar metaphor using stratgies of chance and reflection, which will then be contributed to the larger projet, an interactive projection installation of the moon, in December 2023, at Quai 51600 in Verdun.

The poetic metaphors use a simple formula - "The moon is..." - followed by an adjective and a noun. These are most run to develop by chance, using words taken from a text, a song, or a book, or an overheard conversation. By choosing things at random, creating our poems through chance, we acoid the trap of trying to write something that we assume to sound like a lunar metaphor, and hopefully stumble into new connections and profoundly absurd combinations that spark our imagination. We want to avoid over thinking, and then let the metaphor itself inspire possible next steps.

la lune est un révolution tranquille (the moon is a quiet revoultion)

la lune est un veteran polyphonique (the moon is a polyphonic veteran) 

The project is inspired by the workshops of Ross Sutherland, as discussed in his Imaginary Advice podcaste episode "Re: The Moon". Indeed, this workshop is my attempt to recreate the processes he decribes, and to use them as a starting point for developing the final insteractive installation in december 2023.

More info here: https://sites.google.com/view/laluneestverdun/latelier-d%C3%A9criture?authuser=0

You can also contribute your lunar metaphor here! >>> https://bit.ly/soumissionslunaires 

PREMIERE OF NEW FILM >>>
TEN THOUSAND YEARS
BRAZIERS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL >>> Sunday 3rd September 2023 as part of 'Radical Instincts'

I've  finally completed a new film - another version of Groundhog Day - which will have its premiere at the upcoming Braziers International Film Festval. The film is a collaboration with Ross Sutherland of the Imaginary Advice podcast, and based on his own obsession with rewatching the 1993 film Groundhog Day. Additional sound design has been magicked up by my good friend Raz Ullah, with whom I have collaborated on a previous GHD project, the 2019 'remix'.

Ten Thousand Years is a quasi-sequel to Groundhog Day, supposing that the weatherman protagonist Phil Connors never left the town of Punxatawny, and instead remained trapped in his loopy existence for millenia. At this point he has chosen "a single final path" - to do nothing. The story is written and narrated by Ross Sutherland, and manages to combine profound philosophical questions with crude jokes about dog penises. The film is entirely composed of extremely short sequences from the original film, that have been bathed in a soup of video feedback.

I'm really pleased to be showing at Braziers IFF - it is a festival organised and programmed by other artist film makers who I hugely respect, such as Nick Jordan, Chris Paul Daniels and Dave Griffiths. The programme as a whole looks terriffic, especially the film focus on the work of Julia Parks. I sadly wont be there in person, but will attempt to be present via some kind of transcendental meditation.