28
December
2022 — 31
January
2023
Online
For the next online screening in the ONE WORK series we present Heather Andrews’ film ‘In Erms of Clay’ (2021), which will be available to view here for the month of January. Heather Andrews will join Public Programme Manager, David Upton, for an online discussion on the work on Thursday, 26 January, at 7pm. Book your place here.
A Southern Scots gothic tale,‘In Erms of Clay’ explores a time when to be neurodivergent was considered to be disturbed. The story is set just prior to the 2001 Foot and Mouth outbreak in Dumfries and Galloway. It is seen though the eyes of a teenage girl, Fraoch, whose journey through a diagnosis of epilepsy takes place within the walls of an adolescent unit in the South of Scotland. The film unfolds through prose written in East Ayrshire Scots, where Fraoch converses with a horse spirit named Storm. She is presented with visions of the impending crisis only when she experiences seizures, which allows her to connect with her“second sight”, an ability to predict the future.
With cinematography by Julia Parks and Lucas Kao, the film incorporates footage shot on 16mm film alongside footage of the live scoring and sound design created for the film, revealing the foley artistry which is rarely seen by an audience.
‘In Erms of Clay’ is a film within a film and is one of four works by Andrews which take place within‘In Plain Sight’, a semi autobiographical live sound and moving image project.
Image description: A 16mm film still showing of the head and neck of a black horse with a white spot on its forehead. Its eyes are wide and its ears are alert. It is wearing a black bridle and seems to look down towards the viewer. The background is a blue sky with yellowish clouds as if it is early morning or evening.
About the artist
Heather Andrews is a neurodivergent filmmaker, sound designer and writer originally from East Ayrshire and now residing in Glasgow. She strives to create engaging and thought provoking moving image and sound work, challenging stereotypes of disability, environmental and political issues and the storytelling and folklore of life in rural parts of Scotland. She strives to explore new ways of producing work in an ethical way, favouring analogue methods in both picture and sound and blurring the boundaries between documentary and fictional work. Heather is currently working on her 2022 film commission with GMAC Little Pictures, an experimental documentary based on accounts of the experiences of the aura in epilepsy.
Closed Captions
Open captions available
Part of ONE WORK
ONE WORK is a series of online events that focus closely on a single work. These generous discussions provide an opportunity for an artist to present a recent work and talk through how the work came into being. Each work is available as a month-long online screening, followed by a specially commissioned written response that serves as documentation of both the work and the discussion.