This film marks a moment in the development of my current research. Needing respite from the complex themes arising, I found myself looking up. Through the skylight I saw the vapour trails of planes…
Glissant work in progress. 2020 17mins
Shot in a single take over 15 minutes, the camera captures a morning event.
Working with distance and proximity, the sound track draws from my current location: atmos, birds, human breath, tones and frequencies, the ubiquitous drones of planes as they move through space. The sky temporarily marked by traces of human activity.
About the Artist
Tanya Syed is a Swansea based artist working with film, digital, sound and installation. She makes single screen and gallery based work and has collaborated with artists of performance, dance, theatre and music. Having studied fine art at Goldsmiths College London she developed her filmmaking practice at the London Film Makers Co-op in the early 90’s. Distributed by the Lux her early 16mm films have been screened extensively in the UK and internationally. Preoccupations with movement, gesture, perception and interoception led her to train in Craniosacral therapy and Somatic Experiencing. She uses responsive camerawork, playing with ambiguous relationships to gravity, object and location.
About the Commission
I will use this invitation from the Centre of Material Thinking to reframe works in progress in relation to its concerns and to consider that ‘vital materiality’ is in evidence. I am currently working on an installation project based on a map of flight paths. My artist response to the data attempts to make visceral and auditory representations from what has become measures of distance, time, and absence. And to re-view the vehicle that shifts from being a romanticised form of travel, to a mode of moving people around the globe without consent.
