I am now in the last stages of the run up to our Degree Show, which opens on Friday 13th June. I hope that isn't a bad omen ! The project I am working on started with a film that I love – Powell & Pressburger's 'I Know Where I'm Going'. What fascinates me about the film is that it addresses ideas of fate – whether our lives have meaning. Do the things that happen to us happen for a reason or are they just random and chaotic ? Do we have any control over our lives or are our choices an illusion ? The film is shot through with references to myth and stories – it is as though the central characters are having to play out the stories that they tell – again this goes back to the question of whether they have any free will. Of course they themselves are only creations in a story too. This interest in narrative led me to make a series of books – or at least to embark on this – each of which will represent one of the characters in the film and contain all the words spoken by that character. Each book is intended to reflect some aspect of the person. I am also bringing in imagery which is personal to me – drawn from the landscape around me. The making process is very slow though – and intensive. The first book that is nearly complete is a circular book – Torquil, the hero figure, represents a force of chaos in the film, the person who disrupts the heroine's plans. Central to the film is a whirlpool and he is the living embodiment of that.
