Ragged Arcadia (2020)

Digital Video, 10'11''

 

Music - Dream Skills - Islands - find out more

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Shot on a month-long residency on Oro - a former military island, now part of the Finnish Archipelago National Park the film explores the micro topographies of the island through different wild grass habitats from meadow to sea to swamp, illuminating the tiny, mundane and commonplace.

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This is a microcosmic journey through these overlooked and unassuming weeds: what Richard Mabley calls a ‘ragged arcadia’. There are over 12,000 species of wild grass over the world that capture carbon and are part of diverse habitats both on land and underwater.

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All layering and effects are done in-camera - even making bokeh filters using grass specimens - creating a dreamlike prism through which to see a day, light, seasons, landscape.

 

Perhaps we can save the world by paying attention to the small things that make up the whole.

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