Artist’s Statement:
A winged woman and an Earthly man meet and navigate around each other, noting their differences, each asking questions about themselves and the other, wondering how they can connect. He watches her, wondering who conjured who, describing her as “part this world, part other.” She pledges to wait for him in orbit, realizing he may never come. It’s a story about difference, longing, and wonder.
The piece began life as a poem, one of the handful I’ve written over my career as a writer. It was initially written for something called The Grapevine Project, which featured 120 artists and writers from around the world. After the exhibition, I photographed the finished piece in sections, played with the light levels, the contrast and so on, and filmed the process. This footage was then cut together into the film you see now, which I scored with a track called “And then you return” by my musician partner. The way the song seems to open up at the end, just as the man responds to the winged woman’s question: What if you dared to look at me? echoes an opening up between them.
