Palm Trees of Hackney

Moving image / DV Video / 2011
11 minutes 45 seconds 
A collaboration with choreographer, Christina Ciupke

Conversation Piece #1 An exchange of place Two (new) view points An exchange of ideas This piece explores the relationship between the process of looking and thinking and then responding to a particular idea within a specific frame. It explores the relationship between stillness and movement – both in the outside, everyday world, and in the thoughts of the filmmakers. The film was made by each of the two filmmakers having a specific duration of time (two days) in which they could exchange neighbourhoods, and construct both a journey and a film at the same time. I went to Kreuzberg and walked a particular route or pattern several times around Christina’s neighbourhood. I tried to get beneath the surface of the city, whilst thinking about the frequent conversations I have with Christina about movement and space and time. Christina came to London and did the same in my neighbourhood. We then placed our individual thoughts and images next to each other, in an edit, seeing if we could find the trace of our thoughts. As an artist working on unconventional collaborations with many different kinds of people, I’m often fascinated by how the most fruitful collaborations begin with a very particular kind of conversational exchange – the form of which is full of movement. The conversation meanders, takes a walk, changes rhythm… all the while revealing delicate and particular patterns of thought. It’s almost impossible to document this kind of conversation – its quality is as much in the silence and rhythm of the pauses as in the words themselves. When I take a walk in a city, I often notice how my rhythm of thinking is affected by what I see and how what I see is affected by my quality of thinking: my imagination continually shifting between remembering one thing or imagining an other (perhaps from a fragment of conversation I overhear) whilst all the time perceiving other things all around me. Palm Trees of Hackney is a playful exploration of conversation in different forms and invites the viewer to follow their own thread of attention.

An exchange of place (Kreuzberg <>Hackney)
An exchange of ideas (Christina<>Lucy) Two (new) view points

Two (new) view points

Swopping each other’s neighbourhoods, Christina and Lucy took a walk around the block, constructing a simple video score as they moved through unfamiliar streets, following the pattern of their attention whilst recalling ideas they’d share in movement and conversation.

Palm Trees of Hackney invites the viewer to follow their own thread of attention via its splitscreen form.

Screened as part of Still Moving, Siobhan Davies Studios, London, UK