Drawing on the unwritten and elusive histories of folk and its reflections, 'Visionary Landscapes' at Cecil Sharp House, the home of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, brought together diverse voices and perspectives on representations of English landscape and folk culture. Highlights included a one-off evening presented by artist/filmmaker Andrew Kötting (Gallivant, This Filthy Earth) and artist/musician Jem Finer (founder member of The Pogues and developer of Longplayer, a 1000 year musical composition) of music, film and performance. Dramatist/playwright, David Rudkin discussed his work, (much of which deals with the mystical nature of the English Landscape) followed by one of his key works, the 70s TV play 'Penda's Fen' (dir. Alan Clarke). A presentation by celebrated folklorist/oral historian Doc Rowe, who has spent the last 40 years documenting British folk traditions, drawing from his extraordinary collection of films, photographs and audio recordings.
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| Kevin Brownlow, Winstanley |
In a very rare appearance screenwriter Tom Baker discussed his work with Michael Reeves on the seminal British horror film, 'Witchfinder General' (1968) 'a Suffolk western' with writer Iain Sinclair (London Orbital). In addition to these events, Adam Chodzko's installation 'A Plan for a Spell' and Andrew Kötting's 'Gallivant' was presented for the whole weekend, in addition to music, dancing and other events
May 13th 7pm LISTEN TO VISIONARY LANDSCAPES RADIO. music, talk and performance from many of the participants on Resonance104.4fm
SCHEDULE
Friday 23rd May 7.30pm
Andrew Kötting and Jem Finer present
FOLK FILM MUSIC JOLLY UP
Emile Cioran 'Anything in Folklore that remains alive comes from before Christianity
- the same is true of whatever is alive in each of us.'
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| Andrew Kotting and Ben Woodford, Gallivant |
Films
• Music for 4 Instruments and one blacksmith
• Muscle Horse – Andrew Crabb with Billy Childish and
• Farmer’s Son – Nick Gordon Smith – 2 min
• Take Me Home – Matt Hulse – 6 min
• Sshhhhh – Alnoor Dewshi – 1 min
• Jaunt – Andrew Kotting – 5 min
• Busby Berkley’s Tribute to Mae West – Paul Bush – 1 min
• Diddyköy – Nick Gordon Smith and Andrew Kotting
• I Love You – Sarah Miles – 1 min
• Crimbo – Nick Gordon Smith – 3 min
• Gallivant Pilot – Andrew Kötting
Interval
• Warren Malone – songsmith
• Tony Penuultimate with his ukulele
• Dr Rae Gates presents Entrances2hell in and around the UK
• Johny (Band of Holy Joy) Brown and Orlando (Alabama 3) with their Nightingale
machine
• Jem Finer and Andrew Kötting with special guest appearance by Ben
Woolford (and some of his Dad’s home-made equipment)
Saturday 24th May 1pm
Screenwriter David Rudkin in conversation with Gareth Evans followed by a screening
of Alan Clarke's Penda's Fen (1974)'rooted in a mystical rural English landscape,
[Penda's Fen] is studded with long, self-consciously poetic speeches and
dense with sexual/mythical visions and dreams, theological debate and radical
polemic'.
Saturday 24th May 4pm
Folklorist/oral historian Doc Rowe presents a visual tour of contemporary seasonal
events and traditions throughout the British Isles.
Saturday 24th May 7.30pm.
Landscape Alchemy and Transformation: a night of experimental film, performance
and expanded cinema and music from Murri
Vertical - David Hall (1970, col, opt, 13min)
Valtos or The Veil - Patrick Keiller (1988, bw, opt, 11min)
Seven Days - Chris Welsby (1974, col, opt, 20min)
Bag of Air - Tacita Dean (1995, bw, opt, 3min)
Walk - Jenny Okun (1975, col, sil, 5min) 16fps
Water Wrackets - Peter Greenaway (1975, col, opt, 12min)
Journey to Avebury - Derek Jarman (1971, Col, sil, 10min) with soundtrack by
Coil
Paper Landscape - Guy Sherwin (1975, super 8 film performance, col, 10min)
River Yar - William Raban and Chris Welsby (1971, col, opt, 35min) two
screens
Wind Vane - Chris Welsby (col, opt, 8 min) two screens
Autumn Rush (for Kurt Kren) - Anna Thew (col, sil, 5 min) two screens
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| David Hall, Vertical |
Filmmaker and historian Kevin Brownlow presents his film 'Winstanley' (1975): 'A truly stunning and hauntingly beautiful film, telling the little known story of Gerald Winstanley and the Diggers, a short-lived radical movement that emerged during the English Civil War & A very English film, but this is no green and pleasant land; here is the English landscape and climate at its harshest and most overwhelming' Early Modern Web.
Sunday 25th May 4pm
Writer Iain Sinclair in discussion with the screenwriter of Tom Baker followed
by a screening of 'Witchfinder General' (1968) 'one of the most personal
and mature statements in the history of British cinema'. David Pirie '..English
ground, English weather, movement through nature and the seasons. Film as
journey..' Iain Sinclair (NB Witchfinder General will screen on DVD - this
is due to unavailability of a good quality filmprint)
Plus for the whole weekend:
Adam Chodzko's ' Plan for a Spell' installation
Chodzko has assembled a compendium of rural arcana: tar barrelling from Devon,
the Burry Man from Scotland, and from Cumbria a host of sequences including
wicker weaving, wind turbines, a demolition derby, pyres of slaughtered cattle
cadavers (infected by the foot and mouth outbreak) and a huge scrum of men
that lurches, scatters and regroups as it careers up hill and down dale. Using
a DVD encoded to randomly sort through these contemporary 'folk' sites, image,
sound and text combine in a multitude of permutations, searching for the right
combination of sequences that will catalyse the release of a spell.
Andrew Kotting's 'Gallivant' Project Room.
Film and ephemera
'Kötting, his grandmother and his daughter Eden set out together to travel
the way round the coastline of mainland Britain. Together they have adventures,
meet lots of characters, explore fishing villages and get to know each other...
Clouds race across the sky, tides rise and fall, landscapes are bathed first
in sun, then in shade. Much of the dialogue, the little conversations people
have when they know each other well and just enjoy being together, floats about
this epic imagery of the sea and sky, bringing a majesty and a poetry to both.'
(Mark Cousins)
Plus music from Murri
Curated by William J E Fowler
With Benjamin Cook, Lucy Reynolds and Gareth Evans
Presented in collaboration with The English Folk Dance and Song Society (www.efdss.org) as part of the 125th anniversary celebrations of the Folklore Society, with special thanks to Malcolm Taylor, Doc Rowe, Nicola Elwell, Film and Video Umbrella
Supported by London Film and Video Development Agency
