Over The Beck

January 2024

Oval mirrors, oval cork boards, Yorkshire sandstone rocks, spatial video-drawing (projection) and sound.

Including moving image and sound of “The self is not a wall but more like water”, 2023.

34 x 23 cm, 34 x 23 cm, various sizes, 3 minutes 22 seconds, 10 minutes.

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Over The Beck offers a moment of reflection and meditation giving new life to past pieces of work. As a spatial video-drawing, I respond to the space to curate the piece through projection, suspension and reflection. Light of the ‘video-drawing’ bounces off the oval mirrors to make marks and drawings upon the oval panels and the surrounding space. Therefore, Over The Beck transforms each time it is installed to offer new perspectives specific to the space and world around it.

Exploring themes of rebirth and the cycle of life, Over The Beck takes inspiration from the water at The Hollies, Meanwood, West Yorkshire. Through experimenting with water as a material, I engaged and connected with it to create ‘video-drawings’. “The self is not a wall but more like water” is the ‘video-drawing’ projected here for Over The Beck. This ‘video-drawing’ is accompanied by a sound piece of the same name, created by recording melodies of the water at The Hollies. The sound piece features my response to the water’s chatter through instinctive percussion and underwater vocal work.

The water at The Hollies offers me a haven through anxious, confusing times and I wonder about my connection with it. Recently graduating and returning to my hometown in Leeds, I want to engage a stronger connection and communication with the land and water of my childhood and West Yorkshire heritage. Having previously explored this through sound and video, I am excited by the idea of experimenting with natural materials found by the beck including rocks and plants.