Walking art as palimpsest : writing, history and the film poem.

PALIMPSEST I : I’ve used the Walking Research Group at SHU as an opportunity to address and exploit a dichotomy in my practice as a writer and cinematographer working primarily in narrative film. I’ve done this by selecting two framing devices.

Firstly, identifying The Woods as a location to walk and develop work, drawing on a number of cultural references. Secondly, using the idea of walking specifically, and film/art derived from it, as forms of Palimpsest – one text written over another, partially erasing it. While the acts of rewriting and reworking are central to narrative film and I also wanted to compare established ‘structures’ to the physical, social, psychic phenomenon of the ‘Desire Path’.

PALIMPSEST II: ‘BABYLEGS’ : Babylegs is a film/writing project that articulates the idea of palimpsest in genre and myth – especially folk and fairytales. We rework the walks – real and imagined – of children through these ancient Rackhamesque woods. These elements/rushes/fragments are then reworked, with children as co-authors, in the studio with real sets and virtual environments. This reimagining draws in part on the work of Moon, Carter, together with Kitano’s ‘Card Narratives’ and Favat/Piaget – The Child in the Tale – as an interpretation of the work of the Brothers Grimm.

PALIMPSEST III - ‘An Old Wood. And Deep’ : Film Work in Progress

An engagement with history, and the imaginary, by walking and making in two locations, this work is also a physical realization of the palimpsest made by passing 16/35mm film through a camera twice – once in each wood/forest. Film images will be ‘half-made’ in this wood on the outskirts of Sheffield.