doubleswan and moving furniture
Doubleswan is a meditation on a childhood memory. My Scottish grandmother was very whimsical and always set a grand table for guests. At the top of each place setting there was a finger bowl filled with water beside which one found a small envelope printed with a scene of flowers, fish and birds and mysterious Oriental text. On the back of the envelope it said something in English like magic flowers bloom in water. Inside the envelope there was a handful of colourful, knotted, papery dust. And sure enough when you dropped them in the little bowl of water they unfurled as promised into a pond of tiny blooming waterlilies and wildlife swimming around. Doubleswan tries to recreate my memory of these episodes. I placed a large glass bowl of water before a curtain to which I added the smallest origami I could cut, fold and curl out of construction paper. Then I stirred the water to create currents and ripples. The musical score was created on a toy electric keyboard. The video was shot in the mirror function of an analogue video camera.