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CANWEYE { } [2016]

Single channel film, 30 min 45 sec, 16mm transferred to digital, colour, stereo; single channel film [trailer], 4 min 37 sec, 16mm transferred to digital, colour stereo; fly-posters, acoustic hessian panels, coloured fluorescent light bulbs; and installation construction including sound-proofed booth, projection space with chairs and hessian panels, and Derek Jarman drawing ‘Plague Street’ [1970/71] / / film credits, exhibitions and screenings here >

In CANWEYE { }, the image of the film set, between states of construction and deconstruction, becomes the main narrative character in a meta-fiction, shot on 16mm film on Canvey Island, Essex and in Venice, Italy. Here, the estuary and the lagoon are locations for an ambitious proposal towards a facsimile city, where parallel architectural and geological sites signify another kind of set.

The work stems from research around 'Plague Street' [1971], a drawing by Derek Jarman and possible set design for Ken Russell’s 'The Devils' [1971]. Jarman later captured ‘The Devils’ on Super-8 from the screen at the Elgin Cinema, New York, reconfiguring the footage for 'The Devils at the Elgin' [1974], which concludes in a “blizzard of ashes”, presenting the set as he had originally envisaged. This ghost adaptation becomes an invisible score for ‘CANWEYE { }’, that also comprises material orbiting another film, as its own unmade epic.

‘CANWEYE { }’ was first shown at Focal Point Gallery in a three-part structure that recalled a sound-recording booth, with glass viewing panel into the space of the projection. It was installed alongside Jarman’s ‘Plague Street’, a fly-poster series ‘TELEPATH’, and film trailer ‘INCIPIT’, that presents three musicians in the process of recording the film score, composed by Leo Chadburn.

INCIPIT can be viewed here >

A blizzard of ashes, commissioned text by Ellen Greig, can be read here >

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Images: 1- 2. Frances Scott, 'CANWEYE { }' (2016) film stills; 3. Frances Scott, 'INCIPIT' (2016), film still; 4 - 7. Installation views, Focal Point Gallery 2016. Commissioned by Focal Point Gallery, funded by Arts Council England, and supported by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council and Southend Museums. The film was first shown as part of the solo exhibition at Focal Point Gallery [2016], and subsequently at Whitechapel Gallery as part of 'Prairie Lands of the Sea' with Phil Coy [2017] and in 'Islands' at Annely Juda Fine Art with The Russian Club [2018].