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THE PRESENT TENSE, DIGITAL VIDEO WITH SOUND, 18 MINUTES, 2014
The Present Tense brings together three interconnecting stories, exploring the ways in which proximity and distance alter our understanding of one another. Set on and around a building site, a cycle of urban demolition and construction provides a backdrop for the physical and emotional regeneration of the central characters. After falling in the street, a woman observes the slow healing process of her grazed skin as she negotiates personal and professional transformations affecting her life. In a consulting room, a therapist uses Sandplay Therapy to mobilise communication with a young client. Elsewhere, police officers put on a performance for a group of teenagers, singing about their daily interactions with people on the street. These three scenarios come together to describe our public personas as narratives that are continuously rewritten by one another and ourselves. The video is structured around an extended musical number written with composer Soosan Lolovar, who, along with many of the performers in this video, also collaborated with me on Between You And Me, a play presented by Chisenhale Gallery and Create at The Glass House Community Centre in July 2013. The production of the present tense was supported by chisenhale gallery and create london, it was presented in a solo exhibition at chisenhale gallery in 2014. listen to Naomi pearce's exhibition tour of the present tense 'Making a song and dance of things' BASIA LEWANDOWSKA CUMMINGS, frieze, august 2014 |