GSA Showcase 2021

The Magical Marsh is a fictitious place that I imagined superimposed on reality during the first lockdown: a place of dreams, of escape and reflection, of solitude too. From this dream and these thoughts a body of text was born, and this [on-going] project is the attempt at visualising this journey. It is a matter of translating a set of colours, images, sounds and sensations that I have associated with the idea of this deserted palace, a place that is lived as both a refuge and a prison, the way I lived that first lockdown back in March: liberated and imprisoned. The Magical Marsh is not limited in time and space since it was born in me, like a mind palace: but it is deeply link to the memories and feelings of that first lockdown. It is both real and unreal, something people can relate to and something very personal, a dream place and a nightmarish one.

This work allowed me to explore moving image, story-telling, symbolism and colour. It also allowed me to work out ways in which my visual work could come into place with my personal writing. Two music videos for two tracks have been made as yet, and each slightly differs as my skills, interests and ambitions shifted through time and research. It is also a collaboration with Hugo Saccardy who’s been my friend in charge of thinking and creating the music. In some ways, I perceive this project as a ‘reverse-album’, starting from lyrics and working towards audio through image making. Each track is a different story but also part of a whole, which allows to delve into new ways of making moving image, different aesthetics, different tones.