SUB ASTRA (THE DRY CELLAR)

Excerpt from Sub Astra (The Dry Cellar), 2021

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. This reference to Virginia Woolf’s 'Mrs Dalloway' conveys the idea that, like the novel’s eponymous character, our daily lives were suppressed and dictated by the decisions made by those in the government. The film was made during the Covid-19 pandemic and as the UK was leaving the EU. We hear the breathing of an unseen explorer and a voice recites a phrase from T.S. Eliot’s poem Little Gidding, “What we call the beginning is often the end, and to make an end is to make a beginning”, a phrase invoked by the EU President at the point of Brexit.

Stereo sound, 10.24 mins (continuous loop), 2021

Stills from Sub Astra (The Dry Cellar), 2021