SAY WHEN

The film explores a destabilisation of time by blending history, observations of contemporary life and premonitions of the future, synthesising visual and audio ideas through the fractured lens of memory and media. Say When is inspired by memories of my grandmother explaining how reading tealeaves gives insights into everyday concerns. Throughout the film tea leaf reading or ‘tasseography’ opens up narratives set around an area of the Kent coast; underwater sound recordings at the site of obsolete cross-channel telegraph cables, memorial benches along the promenade and prophetic graffiti on the sea wall. The film reflects on post-Brexit loss of connectivity with Europe alongside personal grief and heralds a future demise of fast-fashion retailer Primark when mysterious tunnels are found underneath the shop. Beached ruins of the retail outlet emulate the Statue of Liberty in the film Planet of the Apes and stand as a critique of the present from the perspective of an imagined future.

Technical interventions such as macro photography, manipulated video, hydrophone recordings, and 3D scanning are used to forensically examine the tealeaves. Exploring psychogeographic aspects of the landscape and the relationship between technology and esoteric belief systems, the film illustrates a disjointed temporality, interweaving past and present perspectives with premonitions of the future. The work is assembled from new filmed footage, vintage photos, Foley, studio and field recordings. From seemingly disconnected elements cinematic representations fit together to form a provocative whole that emulates my own thought processes where disparate personal and collective cultural issues are juxtaposed and form new associations. The vernacular expression ‘say when’ means enough ie. when to stop (pouring milk or tea). The phrase is tacitly implied towards the socio-political themes in the film and to question the timing of the visions.

Single channel 4K video, stereo sound, 17.50 mins, 2023

Stills from film, 2023

Say When installation and screening, 2023