Washed Up Screenplay Angel: An immersive exhibition and performance
PROPOSAL
In a fast junk world we need to dig deeper into our souls. The main focus of Washed Up Screenplay Angel is on the ‘poetic’ from all the elements - film, sculpture, music and dance. From quoting Lorca to lyrics written for the film and Hindu notions of our place on earth to the core notion of duende.
Lorca said, “Flamenco alludes the cold, rigid staves of modern music. It’s tears lie too deep for thoughts”.
Projections of new and existing archive material on figure and form, working with previously recorded music and percussion and guitar, spoken poetry and light to create a fusion that, like a wild flower on the roadside, briefly illuminates a barren scene.
From these elements completed film and printed works will emerge.
BACKSTORY
Over a period of time as a film-maker I wrote and researched The Drummer, a road movie set in France and Spain. Washed Up Screenplay Angel is the essence of that film.
The work will draw on themes of duende, dreams, and the rhythms of nature and fire.
PERFORMANCE
An ensemble of musicians and a lone dancer, showered in immersive projections. A projected backdrop behind them. The grace and violence of the dance (think punk flamenco) and music, becoming the essence, in an explosion of lyric and colour.
EXISTING FILMS:
PEGASUS AFLAME background imagery filmed on the road to Valencia from and at Las Fallas - Nit del Foc. The music is composed by Will Gregory (Goldfrapp) featuring Angelo Bruscini (Massive Attack).
THE KINGS OF RHYTHM reccee images set to a poem from the film recited by Spanish actor Mapi Galan.
OTHER WRITINGS
“And when we contemplate those subtly divided intervals of colour, where the modulations of essentials prolong themselves into infinity, these violent viewpoints, these explosive gestures, these violent contortions which so shock mediocre and colourless minds - we hear the Cante Jondo of painting”. Eisenstein’s The Film Sense
“A song by Shakespeare or Verlaine, which seems so free and living as remote from any conscious purpose is rain that falls in a garden or the lights of evening, is discovered to be the rhythmic speech of an emotion otherwise incommunicable, at least so fitly”. Eisenstein’s The Film Sense
Potential NFT works
DREAMING
DREAMING is an outcry against tearing up the planet for profit
‘it’s oil and gold, bought and sold, some dream-stone stealing’
A montage of images juxtaposing nature and indigenous peoples alongside destruction caused by corporations and careless governments.
"Dreaming is a meditative film by Roger Thorp which alludes to the cataclysmic human appetites which have propelled us towards the apocalyptic countdown of the climate crisis. The film positions contemporary finite concerns and appetites over-layed, in contrast, with a wider contemplation of deeper indigenous knowing and spiritual interconnectivity, set against the vast expanse of the infinite universe. The film is a palimpsest of deep concern layered with hope and potential." Joseph Clarke, Anima Mundi Gallery
CREDITS: Sound designed by Nick Rye. The poem recited by Nix Wood. The dancer, Talia Sealey
DUST… WHERE DO I BEGIN:
Dust, where do I Begin, visually explores the desperate need for internationalism in an age of crises often amplified by profligate leaders. This plays alongside a naïve poetic recital that pleads for an understanding of humility and of the chance of beauty. With an understanding of nothingness, or dust perhaps, we may see beyond the conceit of our personal, national and religious histories towards a kind of enlightened universal reason that many espouse.
Within a spinning sphere, a frenetic collision and fusion of national flags and ecological cataclysm gives way to a prayer and timeless imagery, suggesting that we slow down, rethink this place.
CREDITS: The poem recited by Nix Wood.
MORE THOUGHTS: Is it time for A New Internationalism? National Governments must seek and heed advice from indigenous peoples and the scientists who have made a study of climate change for half a century if we are to avoid catastrophe in many forms. Many International Organisations and Charities are primed to hold the reins, perhaps under the auspices of the United Nations. Set partisan leadership to one side and see that true leadership is found in a universal lens and kindness towards the vulnerable.