A commission given by The Pod and The Tin Music and Arts’ DIALOGUE partnership in Coventry, UK in April 2020 to make new work in response to COVID19.
During the coronavirus lockdown, I and no doubt many others have begun perceiving time differently. Without places to go, people to meet, events to get to, my former conceptualisation of time has widened and loosened and broken down. Where as an art practice I used to shoot rolls of film, send them for processing, rely on them coming back, scan, a process ever in cyclical motion, my photo lab is now shut due to the virus and I’ve had to adjust my process. Simultaneously, I found that uneventful, meandering days urged me to shape personal achievement and escapism around solo bicycle rides [my daughter joining me on one occasion].
Through these explorations I’ve discovered areas of Coventry brand new to me, not far from where I live, which has heightened my spatial awareness of the city and understanding of its districts. Instant Dreamscapes in Isolation is a collection of images made with instant film technology and digital audio field recordings of places visited whilst cycling in isolation, the two juxtaposed within video. My vision was to create a meditative collage of organic sound and washed out visual aesthetics, conjuring a film which is dreamlike in tone. A reflection of the feeling of the streets, uncanny in their emptiness. This also forced me to work in a more immediate way to what I’m used to which is congruent with how I feel as a society we’re having to live our lives – in the moment and with greater future unknowns.
Thank you to Maternal Art for inviting me to write and reflect further on the piece for their blog series: “Instant Dreamscapes In Isolation by Adele Mary Reed“.
This film was selected for the film festivals “A Confined Urban Vision” run by City Space Architecture and A-Place [December 2020], and “Reality Check” by Hundred Heroines [December 2020].
In April 2021 the film and full set of 32 instant photographs was acquired by The New Art Gallery Walsall’s permanent capsule collection “Twenty Twenty“.
Digital .MOV file, 03:58 minutes