Looking back: The archivists walk... (2018)

breaking the fall | 2018 | Cropped still from 3-minute digital video

One of the ways I’ve been using the time in lockdown for Covid-19 is to reflect on past work. breaking the fall and The archivists walk over the beautiful debris of our broken flowers are two related works with a tangled collaborative history.

The three-minute video, breaking the fall was made with Megan Calver as a postscript to her wider research project with Sarah Bennett and Philippa Lawrence: Disclosures & Dialogues. This considered possible futures for Hestercombe House in Somerset in discussion with artists, writers, curators, historians, architects, archivists and horticulturists.  In relation to ideas of conservation, Megan invited participants (including me) to experience what it felt like to let things go by dropping flowers down an 8.5-metre stairwell at the property. 

She and I later recreated this action to document it for the Hestercombe archive, adding an extra action Megan wanted to explore of trying to catch the blooms. We also filmed ourselves measuring the drop, which we included in the finished film as it added a further thought about how we might best attend to and care for our heritage.

The text work is my personal contribution to the Hestercombe archive and a coda to our actions. The stairwell we used was by the entrance to the archive office. In coming and going during the day of filming, one of the archivists had to pick his way across the flowers we’d left lying. I liked the idea that archivists might try to step carefully around, but might also inadvertently trample on, what history leaves behind.

The archivists walk… | 2018 | Digitally printed text, Epson ink on Tetenal paper