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what current is under the sea (2021, 17mins)
single-channel video, stereo, back projection, steel, silk on glass



what current is under the sea embarks from a silent encounter with the American minimalist poet Robert Lax and travels into natures curious polyphony of movements. A sound and moving image poem in search for 'living stillness'.




From 2019 to 2020 I was doing fieldwork among Quaker communities in London, being fascinated by the ways Quakers actively shape experiences of collective silence during their meetings of worship. It left me with a curiosity about how notions of silence, emptiness or void have been employed by art and spiritual practitioners throughout history as portals into often unpredictable forms of presence.

what current is under the sea draws on the works of three figures who had their very own practice and thoughts on silence and stillness: Franz Kafka, the composer Morton Feldman and his contemporary Robert Lax, the great American minimalist poet. During the 1990s, Robert Lax was portrayed by filmmaker Nicolas Humbert, who together with his camera met up with Lax for sessions of shared silence – ‘silent improvisations’ – an extract of which Nicolas kindly allowed me to use.




With the support of MA Artists` Film and Moving Image, Goldsmiths University of London

Thanks to Nicolas Humbert, whose silent improvisations with Robert Lax were captured in My Eye Your Eye Andrea Jorge Sanchez, whose beautiful whisper brings to life the poetry of Mr. Lax

Screened at
“Second Body”, APT Gallery, South London, 2021
“Above Land”, Electro Studios Project Space, St. Leonards-on-Sea, 2022

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