SAY WHEN
selected clips from the film Say When, 2024
A CHANGE GONNA COME
Grandma: “Shall I say when?”
Granddaughter: “Yes, you should. Okay, I'll say when.”
Once the tea is cool enough to drink, you simply enjoy it as you normally would. Sweeten it if you like, and if there's a particular issue or topic that you wish to gain insight about through your reading, you should think about it while you sip. This helps to set the intention.
Once you become accustomed to seeing images as silhouettes, it will become easier to spot them. Gradually a story will begin to emerge…
—
This is where the fun begins.
At the top of the steep path to the beach, sits an old brick hut, its doors and windows filled in and plants growing up around it. The wooden telegraph pole, signals the site of telephone cables to passing ships. The site was one of the first to have a telecommunication cable laid along the seabed between the UK and the continent. The building was once a fully-functioning telegraphy station. Cross-channel telegraph cables laid by local engineer Thomas Crampton ushered in the age of international communication, forming the first global network of wires.
When the tide is out, the scar can be seen in the chalk floor where the cable once was, and when the conditions are, favourable you can still catch the remnants of those broadcasts in the wind and the waves.
- ..and we jolly sailor boys we’re off, we’re off, we’re off and the land lubbers lying down below, below, below… -
After a sinkhole has just opened up in Kent, it looks like there’s this network of underground caves that has been discovered. An astonishing network of underground tunnels that could date back a century was discovered under the Broadstairs retail complex. Add that to all the other underground tunnel systems that we've discovered and seen around the globe. It just goes to show there are many, it would be nice to know exactly what they find in these locations. But of course if there's anything truly amazing, they would never let it hit the headlines.
—
- The general synopsis at 18.00 Low Ireland 1017 Losing it’s identity by 1800 on Friday -
- Fisher. North west 4 or 5 occasionally 6 in north. Fair, good -
Oh yeah, there's lots graffiti around here. Some say that they are predictions of events that are about to happen. There was one that said about a hole appearing in the ground. And then not long after it did. I don't know if that's true, but there's actually some odd stuff that happens around here. There was one piece on the wall near here that appeared one day and disappeared the next. Most of it appears and then gradually fades over time, but this piece only lasted overnight. Yes. I'll never forget what it said.
Damn you! God damn you all to hell!
—
Grandma: “Normally I would just have ordinary tea, a tea bag, Typhoo, or Yorkshire or something but, I’ve really grown quite fond of herbal tea.”
A CHANGE GONNA COME.
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 reading tealeaves to deal with everyday concerns. Throughout the film tea leaf readings trigger 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 connections to 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 a scene in the film Planet of the Apes and stand as a critique of the present from an imagined future.
Technical interventions including macro photography, hydrophonic recordings, and 3D scans are used to forensically examine the tealeaves. Exploring psychogeographic aspects of the landscape the film illustrates a destabilisation of time by blending history, observations of contemporary life and premonitions of the future, channeling images and sound through the fractured lens of memory and media.
Single channel 4K video, stereo sound, 18.10 mins, 2024
Stills from film, Say When, 2023
Installation and screening of film, Say When, 2023