To Stand and Stare a Somerset Landscape2011

As an extension to earlier video art and portraiture projects begun in 2008 it became clear to myself and my partner in this work, Charlotte Humpston, that if we could find the potency of those collective projects, there might be a way to reveal a new truth about life that you see every so often here and there as glimpse r flash of a truth before it disappears under your gaze. This work begins with this poem from 1871 by W H Davies read in a broad Somerset accent: “What is this life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare”? In interviewing Somerset people who practice a series of analogue tasks such as basket making, letter carving on graves, instrument making, withy growing, fishing on the levels - we establish that some of these people families have been working in their trades since 1797 - and many have been standing and staring at the truth of life for some long time now. Why would a family maintain this kind of behaviour for so long? Are the young tempted to stop and do something more seductive? Is there some kind of truth in the analogue that is more superior to the the digital? This work took in 25 hours of interviews and took six years to edit and it is in the durational aspect of this work that the truths we sought to discover are revealed. This work has been screened in various places as well as LA, and London and regardless of the audience and its cultural position, eyes do not remain dry for long because the truth revealed is universal. Be prepared to give this work your attention.