SUB ASTRA (THE DRY CELLAR)

This metaphysical voyage weaves together inner and outer time and space. An oneiric journey or a disjointed vision of the future, the film depicts possible starfields, cosmic dust clouds or microscopic cells. Westminster underground station is transformed into an abandoned spacecraft situated deep beneath the Houses of Parliament in London.

We encounter a weightless survey of the subterranean site with the reverberating chimes of Big Ben forming "leaden circles" dissolving through the space. Made during the pandemic, this reference to Virginia Woolf’s 'Mrs Dalloway' invokes the idea that, like the novel’s eponymous character, our daily lives are suppressed and dictated by the decisions made by those in the government. We hear the breathing of an unseen explorer and a voice recites EU president Ursula von der Leyen's borrowed phrase from T.S. Eliot, “What we call the beginning is often the end, and to make an end is to make a beginning.”

Stereo sound, 10.24 mins (continuous loop), 2021

Excerpt from Sub Astra (The Dry Cellar), 2021

Stills from the film, 2021