Live Pages

Backout, Adelaide, Outback--TIM

2010-04-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

To Kangaroo Island first to begin a two week trip into the outback. We went for the silence and the wildlife, saw koalas and a very friendly kangaroo, some 'remarkable' (they were so called) rocks, seals and sea lions and some remote bays and beaches.We waited patiently to see a platypus but only saw the tell-tale bubbles they make on the surface, hence the only photo record is a sculpture of one!

But for me the most interesting thing was seeing the regeneration of the west end of the island, some 1000sq. miles that had been destroyed by a bush fire 3 years ago, caused by dry lightening setting fire to the grass.As you can see by the 2 photos here, new growth is from the bottom and has reached around 10 feet with only charred bits visible above that. It was eerie too because the animals and birds that had left during the fire had not all returned.

Adelaide was disappointing, apart from the museum, especially the new bio-diversity floor and the art gallery with a good many exhibits done by Australian women artists who have captured both the spirit and reality of the country better than anyone. And we did attend a talk at the Aboriginal centre, Tandanya, given by a didgeridoo expert. Otherwise, the mixture of modern and Victorian buildings haphazardly placed was not appealing. However we did make a pilgrimage to the Adelaide Oval to see the Bradman statue, another icon, like the platypus, we could only see a model of!

Then to the real outback, Australia is vast! We travelled some 2000 km and only just touched it. 500 of those kms were through a swarm/plague of locusts; windscreen and radiator had to be cleared regularly, on one occasion by some helpful, and hungry, apostle birds or lousy jacks as the locals called them.

Wilpena Pound, 6 hours drive north of Adelaide was next. A vast 'crater' surrounded by craggy mountains, once supporting 40,000 sheep and then arable. Both ventures failing through inacessibility and drought, though not through any lack of persistence and struggle by the Hill's family who gave it their best shot! Nearby were 2 sites with Aboriginal cave drawings.

Also the lonely gum, a tree which was the subject of an award winning photo by Cazneaux.

Then to Broken Hill, actual Mad Max country, indeed the next film is being made around there at Silverton where the car is and the hotel which has featured in other films and adverts, XXX beer and Priscilla Queen of the Desert for example.

The town was the centre of Australian silver mining. Slag heaps surround and the miners' memorial is built on one. A hotel has a 'Botticelli" on the ceiling, the local brass band erected a memorial to the band that continued playing as the Titanic sank and the Trade Union movement formed in Broken Hill to fight for better conditions for the miners

Then we came across a sculpture park in the middle of nowhere where we spent sunset. 'Gilly,Gilly hair on fire'

Then to Kinchega National Park and Lake Menindee, another wonderful sunset, accommodation in the old shearers' quarters, a billabong and the first sight of the Darling river which, along with the Murray are the longest rivers in the country,around 1800klms., and crucial in the irrigation system. The woolshed is well preserved, the last shearing was only in 1967, the processes and bits of machinery clearly visible and the smells still there.

Billabong

The next stop was to the fabulous Mungo National Park, more shearers' sheds, a bit more luxurious this time as the area is a world heritage site. Lake Mungo actually hasn't been a lake for 18000 years but it has thrown up Mungo man, Lady Mungo and recently the remains of a child ,all some thousands of years old. Even more astonishing are the Great Walls of China, named after Chinese workers of the area, which are a bank of sand dunes built up over time as the wind has swept the sand off the empty lake. These dunes are constantly on the move and month by month uncover the hearths of the original inhabitants of some 40 to 50000 years ago. We saw otoliths (fish ears), emu eggs, flint tools etc in situ which is where the Aboriginal Elders want to keep them.

Wentworth is where the confluence of the 2 great rivers, Murray/Darling, is, and where we found a memorial to the Ferguson tractor that had helped to save the town during a flood.

In Mildura we took a steamboat ride and got a feel for how both goods and people used to travel as well as good info about all the locks and weirs it took to keep the waterway open.

And finally some other birds/animals. A well balanced pelican, a black swan hoping for a nibble, a blue tongued lizard having just avoided being run over, an echidna hiding, a golden orb spider, see the strand of gold web, the desert pea and the snaked neck duck

This is my favourite photo which I feel sums up Australia; white sand, green bush and a blue sky.

We've had a wonderful time seeing some amazing places and fantastic sights and sites. But we've also met some great people who have made our trip that much better with their hospitality and friendship for which we are most grateful. A special mention though for Anne and Ulric who gave us open house in Galston, introduced us to some good friends there and threw some good parties! And Coll and Mike in Paddington with whom we shared the outback trip and were unstinting with their generosity when we stayed in Sydney including lending their car and fixing me up with some tennis!

MARCH

2010-03-19T18:19:00.000-07:00

TRAVELLING DOWN THE SOUTH COAST

CHICKEN SITTING WENTWORTH FALLS IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

The chickens we sat for

The Blue Mountains is a plateau at about 2000m. To climb the mountains you go down. Since being developed for tourism in the 19 century stairs have been hewn from the stone with later additions of galvanised stepladders and boardwalks.We walked down 1000m of steps but came up on a steep rail car.

Mass for Peace by Karl Jenkins. I listened to it many times at Jill's.

Paragon Cafe Katoomba 1920/30 decor

We set out on the 'holiday' part of the trip travelling from the Blue Mountains down the south coast.

More Weather at Batemans Bay

CYNE MALLOWS NELLIGEN

Another fire in the evening

Today the temerature rose over 30, the time late afternoon. There is only stillness and silence. I sit and wait. The sky clouds over again,thunder rumbles and wind stirs the trees. They respond languidly after the days heat. The black creek water ruffles, the wind persists,soon the rain patters on the sail above me on the cottage deck. It's drops pierce the creeks smooth blackness and two black cockatoos fly high, their cries not as rasping as the sulphur crests.

Torrential rain battered the forest all night

From the bedroom in Cyne Mallows, 8k off the road

Lunch in Narooma

MYSTERY BAY

Mystery Bay Cottages

A favourite place, Mystery Bay

EDEN

B and B Eden

'Heritage' B and B Eden, Heritage is big business

Grey forest, strange and desolate landscape

Path through grey forest, Greencape

Red rocks, Greencape

Greener forest, Greencape

Daidson Whaling station closed in 1926. I have been reading The Basque History of the World which has a lot about Basque whaling accomplishments in the 15th and 16th cenutries. I find it astonishing that people travelled so far(Newfoundland etc) and that they were able to catch large wales from such small boats. Such is my ignorance. Here I learnt more, especially about the strange collaboration between man and killer wales. The killer whales cornered the great whales and drove them to shore. The men rewarded them with eyes and tongues of the great whales. This industry also, unusually, involved white and indigenous Australians working together too.

FAIRVIEW FARM, APPLETREE COTTAGE, WALAGA LAKE

Fairview Farm

From Apple Tree Cottage

I find I can't 'read'Australian gardens. I am used to English, French, Italian and enjoy visiting them and making my own at home. It is like painting with plants. But Australian gardens ,especially full of 'natives' don't really touch me.

I can't get a sense of their aesthetic. The small garden at this cottage comes close. It has a feel of drawing inspiration from 'back home' and adapts using Australian plants, to an English style of planting. There are lilies,sweet jasmine,lavender,agapanthus,beautiful hibiscus and also fruit trees.

The owners of Fairview farm were 'ten pound poms' but she is scotish and resents this label.

For my Washing series

BACK IN SYDNEY

I had to re scan some photos of Col and Mikes, the friends we stay with in Sydney. I'm using them in My 60's, a film from the days of our hippy commune. Here Josef Koudelka is taking a photo of Col in the yard of the cottage in the Forest of Dean where the commune mostly was....

And here is the photo he took

BACK IN GALSTON

I hardly ever take photos of people so here are some snaps of Saturday morning in Galston

Ulric(left) is rebuilding the deck

Tim (centre) has just finished cutting back a troublesome, virulent
creeper

Anne (right) is weeding

I am just taking pictures

Ulric is also building a sailing boat with two friends. When he was young he sailed single handed across to Australia from Europe somewhere.He was alone for several months. With my interest in silence this adventure of his impresses me. He is Swiss.

Ulric has an enormous workshop/studio filled with useful machines and a huge collection of STUFF
Possums live in the workshop roof and nest in the insulation

Ulric is a sculptor, making large and small works usually based on birds and animals or shells and fossils.

The weather has been brilliant and so have the evening skies.

Today is really sad because the wonderful cattle dog Ruby, who has convinced me I might like a dog, has died. She is one of the two dogs we house sat for.I never thought I would be sad about the death of an animal let alone put a picture on my web site.

Road Trip-Tim

2010-02-22T15:26:00.000-08:00

We walked miles in the Blue Mountains, up and down, up and down. There were spectacular 'leaps' (waterfalls), rolling, tree covered hillsides disguising sheer and vast escarpments as well as trickling creeks. It was along such in Blackheath that Darwin first walked on one of his two visits to the region. I liked this walk the best, perhaps because it was on the flat! We visited Katoomba and were thrilled by the art deco buildings and of course Wentworth Falls where we stayed to look after the hens who thanked us by giving us 3 eggs a day!

And then we set off on what was to be about a 2000 mile round trip down the south coast to see some of the bays and beaches, many with beguiling names: Pebbly, Handkerchief, Mystery, Disaster, Gorilla, Billy's, to name but a few. We stayed in remote holiday cottages that put our little 'No Birds" car to the test of unsealed roads, did bush and beach walks, met some interesting people including a group of hikers who invited us to join their 2 day trek and a 'ten pound pom', actually she was a Scot, who had settled to farm on the shores of Lake Wallaga (A below) and from whom we rented a cottage for 3 days. There has been much more rain than usual this year which is why the grass is so green.

Birds and beasts were even more evident than the bays and beaches. We saw kites and eagles, spoonbills and pelicans, kangaroos at last, by the roadside as you can see., whistling ducks, an Australian crane, emus, a black cockatoo and a yellow breasted robin.

There were two more notable events before we left Sydney for the start of our trip to the Blue Mountains. The first and greatest treat, was a visit to see Ania Volkova, at 91 one of the very few remaining principal dancers of the Ballets Russes who, with her parents had to flee Russia for exile in France after the revolution. What stories she had to tell about her childhood and her dancing and she was so charming and elegant. Gilly gave her a film she had made using archive footage of the dancers at play on the beach in which Ania featured.

The second was to see Gilbert and George signing various, some unspeakable, some valentine, things and then being interviewed in the Gallery of NSW. It was a chance encounter just like the last time we saw them in their favourite, they've been having the same meal there for 30 years, Turkish restaurant in Hackney!
The Blue Mountains are spectacular, they really do give off a blue haze, something to do with the moisture reacting to the gum trees, and vast. There are around 670 different types of gum trees( and over 600 eucalyptus), most of which are able to combust spontaneously, see below right. As if bush fires haven't started easily enough in recent times! 2 appear here: the scribbly gum and the stringy bark are especially interesting.

Then from 'bark to bark' to 'back to back' when in Bilpin there is every year a contest to see who can get the wool from a sheep's back to a garment on a person's in the quickest time. 20 or so hours is the record, held by a team of Czechs, much to the anguish of the locals, I suspect!

Birds figured immediately too. First we hired a car from a company called 'No Birds', to be different from 'Avis' that is! Then the tinkly call of the bell birds as we climbed into the mountains was compelling and when we arrived at our first port of call on Mnt. Irvine, there was a bower bird's nest in the garden(above) resplendent with all the blue decoration which included a whole pen!

Our first longish walk into the bush resulted in finding this aboriginal drawing; there are many scattered around, but it was a thrill coming across this one.

Also, below a very good example of a tesselated rock formation, created as a result of bubbling larva cooling very quickly.

February continued

2010-02-07T17:05:00.000-08:00

LANDSCAPES

I took a copy of my film, PLAY- On the Beach with the Ballets Russes, to give to Ania, one of the soloists, now 91, who appears in it. We had a lively lunch ' just round the corner' ie 10k's away in Australian distance. Her son John was there too. He is doing a PHD in Fine Art and showed us some of his work on his computer. It explores the territory between landscape and it's abstraction in painting. I'm planning to go and see it in his studio as the subject really resonates with my own interests.

I seem to be making two series of photographs: GREEN and BARK

Several visits to galleries,particularly to look at the Australian landscape paintings

between the mid 19th century to the 1940's. Tom Roberts, Sydney Long and Frank McCubbin from the earlier period and later some slightly more urban subjects from three women - Grace Cossington Smith, Margaret Preston (flowers) and Grace Cowley plus another half dozen people I hadn't registered before. The early twentieth century painting is engaging me more these days.

GALSTON

A tame King Parrot visited the Galston garden one afternoon and fed from our hands.

MOUNT IRVINE IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

It's sometimes much colder up in the mountains. The house is down an unsealed track, at the end of a road nearly an hour from the nearest shop. The giant stringy bark gums arch over it draping their long snaky threads over every branch and bush. My favourite huge gum at the bottom of the garden has been felled, and sad as that is, the view is now immensely expansive and peaceful.

The bower bird is still nesting in the bushes. I took a few blue things with me to see if it collected them: a rosellas feather, a piece of ribbon, some blue sweetener wrappers. Over the days these were added to the bower.

WEATHER

For the last few days the weather has looked like this:

THE OUTDOOR CINEMA

The setting is lovely, in the Domain right on the water and overlooking the harbour and bridge. We chatted and ate in the evening sun. The huge screen rises over the water like a vaste red- lit installation,very slowly. Once it was upright and the film started the rain also started and continued throughout. We were all provided with plastic ponchos and very few people actually left. The bats were an added effect as they squeaked and flew across the screen.

A FEW SIGNS

A DREAM

Burglars were climbing a ladder to break into my house. I rushed to the upstairs window to close and lock it but came face to face with the burglar at the top of his ladder. He just smiled and held up a large array of tools. I fled.

THE HARBOUR BRIDGE

One day Tim and I walked across it, just on road level.

THE RAIN

Last night was the hardest, loudest rain I've ever known. For hours. Then it calmed a little, almost to silence before the next great wave pounded the roof again. I lay awake,awake,awake and finally got up and went to stand naked in the cold, fresh, wetness as it sheeted down. The dogs kennels were awash next morning but they never use them anyway.

I found three horrible tiny leeches on my legs and feet after a short time pruning hydrangeas. And after nearly a month my tick bite is still hard and red. Later I found blood on my ankle from another leech I'd missed.

WASHING

A couple of new additions to my Washing Round the World series which I've been doing for thrity years on and off....It might also be called Women's Work.

ANIMALS AND BIRDS

I am learning to distinguish between the feet of cockatoos and possums as they walk up and down the roof. I no longer imagine it's an ax man. The cockatoo marches with big long steps. The possums tread more softly.

Dog Trudi pads, but not on the roof.

WORKING OR NOT

Taking an enforced break from working on MY 60's while I'm here is scary. I decided not to try and sort out what's the matter - me or a corrupt programme or both - but to wait until I'm home. I can use my time here better by reading and thinking and having new ideas. I have never gone so long without my work at hand to absorb me but now it's beginning to feel very nourishing.

I can look at the birds all day. Play with the dogs. Play with Tim. And my friends. I could get to like this life.

SYDNEY-Tim

2010-01-24T16:15:00.000-08:00

Back to Sydney now after the Canberra excursion. I was locationally challenged at first what with staying in Paddington, shopping in Oxford Street and hiring a car in Kings Cross! But it is a place that lives up to its billing. The Opera House/Harbour Bridge site is well known but fabulous when seen from different angles and perspectives. I was particularly surprised by the roof which is hardly ever seen in the tourist photos. It has a tiled, herringbone look that is distinctive [see photo]. We walked across the Bridge, didn't do the climb over the top, and I found out lots of info about the building of it from a display in one of the stone pylons, eg, that 6 million rivets were used in its construction, completed in the early 30s.

But there are other wonderful sights too. The contrasting City and Botanical Gardens, lots of idyllic little bays and beaches, ferries scuttling backwards and forwards across the Harbour {we went to Manly in one} and some great coastal walks; the photo is the lighthouse at the end of one of them, Watson's Bay which also boasts a favourite suicide spot!

We ventured down to the City centre on Australia day,or Invasion day if you're one of the first Australians! It was noisy and busy and not wholehearted I didn't think perhaps because many are troubled by what it is celebrating.

We have been in Sydney for a week now, staying with old friends of Gilly. Mike and Coleen, in the posh Paddington district which is central and very handy for all sights. 2 to be going on with: the famous Bondi beach, engorged with beautiful and young, people, sorry cynical just jealous! And the old member's pavilion at the SCG ( Sydney Cricket Ground for the non cricketers) where we went to see the Aussies thrash Pakistan-BOO. I was interested to note that the behaviour of the supporters was worse than in UK resulting in many being thrown out.

More Sydney sights later. We went to Canberra for a couple of days; an amazing place, built to be the capital of the Commonwealth of states that makes up Australia.I still haven't quite got the relationships between the States and each of theirs with the Capital which is also a State itself. States seem fiercely independent which makes for lots of legislative bodies, commissions, assemblies etc. They say that everyone in Australia is an elective representative to some body or other! It is true that it is per capita the most governed country in the world. The photos taken in Canberra are of the National Library where we went to see a Ballet Russes exhibition and which I thought typifies in its structure the clean and symmetric lines that is like the rest of the City. The other photo is part of the Conciliation,between the Aborigines and the non-indiginous population, instalation: the 'Bower bird', but where are the bits of blue to attract a mate!

'Bushwhacked'

2010-01-13T16:37:00.000-08:00

Have added to these 'bush' pages to give a hint of the variety of wildlife that we are coming into regular contact with, and some more of Ulric's sculptures, especially impressive is the one in the lake showing an almost perfect reflection. [For David and Hazel-- reminiscent of Mnt. Cook on Lake Mattheson]. Have also seen a whole range of finches, honey eaters, a bower bird, bush turkeys [photo], wallabies[of course], parrots[photo], a small brown and very poisonous snake and various reptiles of all sizes. Ibises[photo] have moved into the city for food. They're nice to look at but their new diet doesn't suit.

Quite a contrast, moving from a frenetically busy Bangkok to Anne and Ulric's house in the bush in the Sydney suburb of Galston, though it continues to be very hot, hence the 'whacked'! We are surrounded by wildlife, mostly 'live', but otherwise in Ulric's wonderful stainless steel sculptures.

I wanted to learn to swim whilst I was out here."Fancy him not being able to!" I hear you say. Anyway I've made a start, in Bangkok tentatively in the shallow end amongst all the learning 3 year olds and now in the pool here, so some progress! Off today to the Steiner's beach house in Copacabana and then to Sydney for a couple of weeks.

Couldn't resist a few more of Ulric's fantastic ''sculptures'', all dotted around the garden adding to the sense of being in the bush. We are in Sydney now, but have not yet done the sites; that's next weeks work, but we have just returned from Canberra and have lots of impressions and photos to follow......

HOUSE SITTING

2010-01-12T21:56:00.000-08:00

The sound of cicadas is the first thing I notice when Tim and I arrived at the house, a wall of sound, rising and falling and telling me I am warm.

I am wide awake at 5.15 and get up to photograph an unfurling tree fern against the dawn sky

Birds arrive at the feeder, mostly taking turns, a bird rota, crimson rosellas,

lovely brown pigeons, bullying sulphur crested cockatoos,rainbow lorakeets

Tim sleeps, the wind rises, the cicadas go silent.

Looking after the dogs is fun. I play stick with Ruby when Trudi isn't looking.

The cat died just before we arrived and the vet and previous house sitter wrapped it up and put in the freezer under the dogs bones. Ulric will bury it when he's back.

Reading Sarah Maitlands 'Book of Silence'. She writes of Georg Candors 'elegant mathmatical proof that infinity comes in different sizes'.

I take photos of dog Trudi.

Ann and Ulric return.

CRICKET

I have never been to a cricket match in my life. This was a one day event between Australia and Pakistan. I felt sorry for Pakistan who must be demoralised, unable to play in their own country.

It is quite a fairground. The Mexican Wave looks rather lovely as it undulates through the stands. A weirder phenomenon involves men with giant blow up hands. They perform a short ritual with them when a batsman hits a 4.

Quite a lot of people are arrested (if you throw, you go) Many spend most of the match with their backs to the players indulging in various crowd games or, in the case of the Pakistanis, dancing a male dance. Others just sat, and drank a great deal of beer.

I find I quite enjoy the slow patterns of movement across the huge green space.

As the sky darkens (it's day/night cricket) I notice that the distant city skyscrapers have hardly any lights on. Quite unlike the nightly fairy light show that is the city of London. Much more energy conscious here.

MISCELLANEOUS

On Australia Day we walked through the parks, looking at vintage cars, completely rebuilt, families picniking, music playing. At the end point, Mrs Macqueries Seat we watched the Tall Ships race. In the park are trees I particularly love - Moreton Bay Figs. The park notice says you are allowed to hug them but I didn't.

Norman Foster Deutscher Bank building

Fluid against angular

There is a huge colony of flying foxes (very large bats) roosting in the trees of the Botanical gardens. I find them creepy creatures but also fascinating.They are destroying the tops of the trees and steps have to be taken....
In the evening, as I sit in the garden watching the dusk, I notice the bats come flying. They have a slow ungainly flight quite different from a bird
They also have a wide variety of calls and sqeaks.
It's quite a flight from the Botanical Gardens to here. Some swoop low over the garden and others fly surprisingly high.

Australia Day celebrant

Watching the news in the evening I saw there had been a separate álternative Australia Day event with indigenous people and Amnesty International. It looked interesting and I was sorry not to have known about it until too late.

'Wais and Wats'

2010-01-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

We were made very welcome in the hotel in Bangkok, ie there was a lot of wai-ing, you know putting your hands as if you are praying and bowing a lot. Where you actually place your hands and how much you bow depends on how you perceive your status in relation to the other person.

There was lots of wildlife by the pool, beautiful creatures of all sizes and shapes, though not many as slim and lithe as the one in the photo!

What now of the Wats! We saw three of them: Arun(above), Pho and Taimat. They were all spectacular in their own ways. Arun was grey and threatening, Pho was the most colourful in the biggest site and with the 150 foot reclining Buddha(below left) whilst Taimat boasted the tallest, 4 metres, solid gold Buddha(below right). Our visits were on public holidays and the sites were packed with worshippers paying homage(and cash) to claim 'merits' to the various individual and lines of Buddhas, practices that may be seen in any muslim temple or christian cathedral, which we found surprising, given the non-theistic nature of their beliefs.

BANGKOK

2010-01-10T15:10:00.000-08:00

There was no BA strike. The snow went away just long enough for us to leave.

Bangkok. Bliss. Warmth. Warmth even in the dark. A full moon, in fact a blue moon. A busy night river. Distant fireworks.

A four day public holiday for Buddhists. Crowds surging through Wat Arun, Wat Po and the Golden Buddha temple where monks robes, gift packed in celophane, topped with a spray of beautiful flowers, were bought, presented to the Buddha and then, when enough had pilled up, loaded into plastic crates and trundled back to the stall to be re-sold. The eternal circle, the cycle of life.

From our bedroom window,dusk and dawn.

Wat Arun

Wat Pho

Old and New

Tim waiting for the ferry

For Sue, a Tuk Tuk

For Paul, You can leave your bike unlocked and your helmet just sitting on it.

Awre You and Me

2009-11-17T07:25:00.000-08:00

MarMousa

2009-11-17T07:23:00.000-08:00

Rock Bodies 03

2009-11-17T07:20:00.001-08:00

Rock Bodies 02

2009-11-17T07:19:00.000-08:00

Rock Bodies 01

2009-11-17T07:18:00.001-08:00

Washing

2009-11-17T07:16:00.001-08:00

Under/Line and Dancing under the Dustcover

2009-10-20T04:38:00.000-07:00

Under/Line 2001

SlotArt CH4 Dancer Diane Payne Meyers, Choreographer Wayne McGregor

Dancing under the Dustcover 2000

CH4 11min dance/Animation with Diana Payne Meyers

Another and quite different portrait was of Diane Payne Meyers. My interest in older dancers led me to be on the lookout for them, to see who was around and what they were doing. In a newspaper article I spotted a picture of Diane, aged 70, who apparently was appearing naked in a production. I looked for more information about her and thought she seemed lively and energetic so I got in touch with her. When I asked for her CV she said I would have to meet her to see it which puzzled me but I agreed. At the time I had in mind another film, which made a more concentrated attempt to fuse the dance and technology. However seeing Diane’s CV changed this.

She unwrapped the CV from a brown paper bag. What emerged was a small 1950’s travel guide to Rome. She had covered the RO on the title so the front cover reads ME. And coloured it pink.’ For rose coloured spectacles’ she told me. Inside was her life conjured up from scraps of paper, shopping lists, theatre programmes, old photos, scribblings about events, comments all stuck into the guide book. On some pages little transparent plastic sachets contained further reviews, lists and jottings. The most glorious disordered collection of mementos. It was clear to me that the film was in the book. The book should be brought to life.

This was not a portrait with a focus. It was an impression built around Diane’s collections and possessions. Her flat echoed the book, or the other way round, filled with eccentric but meaningful bits and pieces. Toys, costumes, colourful scraps, a kind of make- believe world grounded in the theatre. Diane had a vast fund of stories from the past. She described herself as ‘a jobbing dancer’ in her typical self-deprecating manner. This film had to be short so the number of things included had to be limited. I had to concentrate on the book itself and not deviate. In order to do this we worked with dancer and choreographer Matthew Hawkins who had partnered and choreographed Diane in several of his shows. She admired and trusted him. Unlike Jane who invented, Diane wanted to be directed rather than originate her own material. Yet her world is clearly one of great invention and richness.

I didn’t’ have the same amount of time to work with Diane and had to make a more surface portrait in Under the Dust Cover. It is bright and eccentric and really does evoke her but I knew there was another Diane in there.

As she talked and told her stories this other Diane appeared. The Diane who dressed up and went on demonstrations, who had once been ‘accused’ of communism. The Diane who took a great interest in politics and the arts. Her career had been based in ballet, variety shows and minor acting roles on stage. In her older years it seemed she was cast as an object to be abused in several of the performances. Her role was not developed; it was comical (she has a real talent in comedy) and maybe even debasing. She was cast in character roles rather in the way ballet dancers ‘of a certain age’ start appearing as old people with stately walk on roles, or jokers who scuttle around not having to dance. I felt that this didn’t allow her to show what she was capable of by choreographing to her strengths. I talked to choreographer Wayne McGregor about making a dance piece with her and UNDER/LINE was created. She was both delighted and nervous at the prospect because Wayne is known for ‘serious’ work. Her instinct was to say she couldn’t do it but this came from years of playing the clown and feeling safe with that. Wayne worked with the movements she could still do, she is elegant and graceful and this short film really shows the other Diane.

For an audience the portrait aspect of UNDER/LINE is only apparent if I am there to tell them about it or to show both films at once. DUSTCOVER is about the past. UNDER/LINE is the going forward the new challenge, the proof of the ability and creativity of the elderly. It didn’t need computer enhancement because there is something pure and simple about it and that’s what I chose over the technology although we did use a bit of movement repetition in the editing. It stands on its own as a dance piece but to me it is something more, the completion of the portrait, the Diane that is rarely seen, the new piece of work that moves her on.

Dancing Inside

2009-10-20T04:35:00.000-07:00

Dancing Inside

1996 BBC2 TX series/London Production Fund 38min documentary/digital dance manipulation with 86 year old choreographer/dancer Jane Dudley

Development of technology inspired me to propose a film in which an older and less able dancer made use of technology to choreograph a piece in which they could move in ways no longer possible for them. I had seen Jane Dudley in a film by a colleague. I approached her and proposed doing something together. At 84 she was still eager, although completely mystified by the computer. We had many talks together and needed to learn the languages of each other’s art. Jane was adamant that she did not want to talk about the past and particularly ‘when she was with Martha’. She had spent some time in Martha Graham’s Dance Company and interviewers often saw this as the only achievement in her life. Now Martha was only to be referred to in passing. Jane wanted to do something new. We both thought about possible subjects and batted ideas back and forth. I wanted her to pick the subject.. It was, and is, important to me to show older people being creative and active. This is obviously to do with the awareness I have of my own ageing and the feeling of doors being closed rather than opened, particularly in the funding world. Jane became a true inspiration to me, a role model of the best kind. For Dancing Inside she decided to concentrate on what it’s like to be older and to face death. I knew this would be challenging for me as a subject. I knew it was really hard for her but doing the film meant she was making something positive from her difficulties, throwing energy out instead of being drained. The single word she was guided by was ‘acceptance’.

This focus allowed me to concentrate on one aspect of her life and from that to refer to other things. It made the film containable. Jane chose the subject because she felt it was under represented on TV and when it was represented it was negative and depressing. She wanted to talk and show that life could still be rich and creative. She really did have something important to say through her work.

Indeed this was born out personally for me by my aunt, then nearing 90, who asked her neighbour to tape the film for her as it was broadcast late. However in the end she stayed up to watch it. She told me how difficult it was at first to face the subject but she stuck it out and by the end was really inspired. The neighbour however, told her the next day that he had not kept the tape. ‘You don’t want to watch that’ he said. ‘It’s about a depressing old woman’ Interesting because the man knew it had been made by my aunt’s niece. How could he take the decision for her? This is a common occurrence in the treatment of old people, an assumption that they no longer know what’s good for them.

Jane devised a 2-minute movement sequence and chose a piece of Shostakovich music.

After shooting it we cut it and tried a straight version and a computer treated version. I preferred it straight. The computer version added nothing to the ‘real’ as far as I was concerned. I then asked Jane to do a piece simply with her hands. She wasn’t happy at first because her hands were so gnarled with arthritis but in the end thought it a good idea. Again, this film was made when people were just beginning to use computer technology to experiment within programmes so it looks a bit old fashioned now.

As well as the ‘dance’ sections we filmed Jane doing a number of the things she talked about as difficult. We also filmed her talking. We filmed her precious possessions in her flat. I used family photos. I built her portrait into her present,now. Within the programme she was given her voice. She chose to walk in the overgrown graveyard ‘the silent house’. She chose to have the footage of her trying to get up off the floor included in the cut. Some people see it as exploitative. The sequence occurred by accident – the cameraman happened to still be running – a thing we had agreed between us just in case something interesting happened. So he went on shooting. Jane volunteered to try getting up off the floor to show how difficult it was and to encourage old people to not give up.

Sometime after the film was made a close friend of Jane’s said to me that many of her friends had felt she wasn’t coming to terms with death and ageing but now that they’d seen the film she realised that Jane had used the film as her way of doing this.

Album 1996

2009-10-20T04:31:00.000-07:00

Album 1996

BBC2 Picture This series. 26min doc. Writer/Director

Album illustrates a particular way, which is perhaps my favourite way, of approaching a film. I am curious about people and several of my films use the medium to bring out a number of qualities about their subjects through their work.

They are not direct biographies or historical records. They are fragments and impressions.

Sometime in the mid 1960’s I found a photo album on a second-hand bookstall in Farringdon Road. The photos dated from1898 – 1910. Places were named but people only bore initials beneath them. The album stayed with me throughout the house moves of my life. Revisiting it whilst clearing out cupboards in 1995I noticed the place names were in Yorkshire where I was then living. One day, when we were camping in a beautiful Derbyshire valley in the pissing summer rain, I decided I’d had enough and drove off to visit a place that I recognised the name of from the album. I was idly wondering about it’s history. It had obviously belonged to someone well-to-do judging by the houses lived in and visited in the photos. I proposed to Peter Symes at the BBC that I make a programme searching for the history of the album. Who was its owner? Why had it ended up on a second-hand bookstall?

This research was done before Google and the internet were so widely used for such purposes and in a way it was much more fun. It meant visiting people and places, little museums and archives, ferreting stuff out for yourself.

The albums owner was a wealthy industrialist, a steel mill owner in the north of England. Having established who the album had belonged to, I became intrigued by the little girl who appeared in many of the pictures. I started to find out more about her. She was clearly the daughter of the albums owner and must have inherited the book when he died. I particularly wondered why she had disposed of the Album. I found people still living who had memories of her and even their own photos of her in adult life. Some were relatives and others lived nearby or had worked for her. The portrait that emerged was rather a sad one, not least because she was still alive when I bought the album. She never had any kids. Her possessions must have been disposed of when she was put into a nursing home suffering from some kind of dementia.

The film shows my journey around the country meeting people who help me knit. I intensely dislike the style of documentary where a person with memories is walked round a building or site that has been significant and says ‘I remember when’ ‘this is where such and such happened’. It conjures up little for the viewer who was not there and does not have the memory in their head.

I used some of the photos from the album and as closely as possible took shots of the same places now. I then faded the one into the other (this is easy now but digital technology was in its infancy when I made the film). This evoked places then and now without the need of verbal explanation. Apart from that I used landscape and buildings to show an atmosphere rather than being tied to specifics.

In the course of the journey I met many more interesting people than could be contained in my 26 minute programme slot. I kept a diary of the journey and of course have footage which I now treasure although it never made it on screen.

There were two secondary stories I stumbled on, stories of people who’s live and personalities fascinated me.

The first was ‘Pom’ Elmhurst whose relative features in the album proudly holding a huge salmon he has caught.. Pom was the younger brother of Leonard Elmhurst who founded Dartington College and was a friend of poet and social reformer Rabindranath Tagore. The Elmhurst’s were a family of upper class socialists. Pom told me he had been ‘converted’ when he visited the poor mining families around Sheffield during his duties in WW2.

The second was Lady Mabel, a friend of the album owners who came from the grandest house I’ve set eyes on. She endowed a women’s college at what was to be known as Bretton Hall, adjacent to Yorkshire Sculpture Park. She was a local eccentric and philanthropist. She had no children. People I interviewed remembered her well. At her death she had asked that all her papers be destroyed and her relatives complied although wanting to make more of her life and work.

The portrait of Rosemary, the daughter in Album, is really an absence.

'Before'

2009-10-20T03:29:00.000-07:00

My 60's Diary Entry

2009-10-20T03:01:00.000-07:00

My 60’s is a work in progress. It’s a personal evocation of the time using drawings from my eccentric diary of a 3 month period in 1969. I was between jobs in animation and making the diary helped to keep me occupied.

Each day I wrote a page about what had happened that day and also made a drawing which might relate to the text, or not. It was intended to be read out to the hippy commune which I then lived in.

The film will use the diary and also still photographs from that period of my life which I have recently collected from some of the people who used to be in the group.

Below are a couple of the drawings and two of the text pages. These have not been corrected so the punctuation, typos and mis-spellings are all intact. I typed as fast as possible on a very old typewriter which had keys that missed or stuck. For some reason part of the intention seemed to be to ‘let it be’ and if all these mistakes changed the sense then so be it. Obviously when I was reading it out myself I knew what I’d meant.

The 2 entries below describe my days when I was painting the house rented by my friends, from a professor at London School of Ecconomics. It was a side line for which I was paid by the professor. Reading this now I can’t imagine what sort of a job I made of it. I am Mrs Pig in the text.

8th December, 1969

Mrs pig will not discuss the angry Scotty terrorizing Margaret in the night which was an unhappy affair causing everyone to lay sleepless wondering for quite some time.let us hope things are happier today john and Margaret said mrs pig.

Todays magor event was mrs pig going to work which john delivered her up to on his way into town.First mrs pig washed the toilet walls. She started in the doewnstairs one first. And tom had said be sure and wash the walls so that is just what she did to the first toilet although she might not do it to all the other ones. Then she stirred up the paint and started to spread it all over the ceiling. Then she spread it all over the walls and the door and the floor. Then she put her head against the wall as you can see by her white hair. Then colleen made her some coffee and they discussed the work of mr William blakeAt least Colleen told mrs pig exactly his manner of working.Colleens manner of working seemed to be as follows. She walked op and down the stairs many times singing a little then she put some things away and got some things out and rang up a lot of people on then phone and answered a lot of people who phoned her. Then she went out at two aclock and that was the start of her day. Mean while mrs pig dropped her honey biscuit honey side down on the floor and pretened she hadn’t dropped it because she did not want to clear it up. Then she finished the first toilet at least one coat it did not look too charming to her as she was already suffering from white eye which meant every brush stroke shone out brightly at her however many times she tried to smooth it. Thenshe started the kitchen walls and painted a good deal of the nice natural wood. That was not very satisfying so she called it a day and went home.

Today mrs pigs eyes were very wet generally perhaps it was something in the paint. As she sat at home thinking about the day so far it seemed that it would be possible to drift away into nothing and never be seen again it really would be nice to have some acid or some real freaky trip that would knock you right out although I am feeling rather knocked out thes daysanyway. she reflected slowly.

This morning mrs pig met Michael and he had inspected her work and given her a kiss to show it was alright so far but it was Tom who mrs pig was most frightened of and he was not there yet.So the morning started much like the others, Michael went off to work with a very nice lilac coloured shirt on and Colleen run up and down stairs and even today in and out of the house looking for her lists of paintings.and names. Why said Colleen did you paint my knickers and not david fucking coates towel mrs pig wondered why indeed she had not actually moved colleens knickers since all the time she had been painting shehad been worrying about dripping on thembut she said sorry as I am about your knickers you are rong about david coates towel because I did p

aint it and then I turned it over hoping that he wouldn’t notice.At that colleen laughed and went on her way to the british museum.Mrs pig started to gloss the wall she glossed the bathroom walls and the walls of the two toilets, one toilet was bigger than the other.And she glossed the taps in the bathroom and the two toilets and the kitchen, and she glossed the handles of all the doors, the bathroom door and the two toilets, and she glossed the light switches of the bathroom and the two toilets, and she glossed her legs,and her hair, and her dress and her feet, and she glossed both lavatory seats and the floor in the kichen and the floor in the downstairs toilet and the carpet in the upstairs toilet and in the bathroom. That seemed to be enough glossing and during that time her mind had been occupied with the word suicide. She said’with the word’ because while the word had been in her headshe had said to herself’what am I thinking about suicide that is innersing and all that it seemed to be was the word suicide suicide going through the mine.And that is how agreat deal of mrs pig thinking came about She would leap into conversation saying o yes I was thinking about that yesterday.What did you conclude asks the fasinated listener -? And then mrs pig would realize that suicide suicide Or heaven heaven or love love had been drifting through just to attract her attention with their existence yes said mrs pig comfortingly I know you are there and this is what she said to suicide and went on with her painting.