The Haunted Sea Film Screening

GHost presents

The Haunted Sea

                                                  Amy McDonough, Ash on my Skirt (still)

Short Film Screening

Friday 23 September 2011

7pm doors open

64 Tontine Street, Folkestone, Kent, CT20 1JP

Map: http://tinyurl.com/6zd2ssc

We have selected twelve international artists who have responded to our call for short films on the theme of “The Haunted Sea”. Their films will be screened on the final weekend of the Folkestone Triennial:

Films by
Tymon Albrzykowski, Neil Baker, Nick Baxter & Jude Cowan & Joanna McCormick, Emma Caddow, Kieron Clark, Inez de Coo, Glenn Church, Romeo Grünfelder, Ellen Lake & Chris Green, Amy McDonough, Eva Rudlinger, Stasis73

Andy Sharp will open and close the event with “An intermission of aural lagan, manipulating phonographic salvage from the actual locations of M.R.James' ghost stories.

Saturday 24th September, 2.00p - 6.00pm
the films will be screened on a loop at 64 Tontine Street
and the B&B Project Space will be open with
a final chance to glimpse the GHost CLHub

4.00pm – Performance by Joanna McCormick and Jude McGowanthe B&B Project Space, 14 Tontine Street

Film Programme

Arctic Echo, Dir. Eva Rudlinger, UK, 2008 The gradual appearance and disappearance of a white cliff facing its double at the mouth of an Icelandic fjord, subtly alters scenery and atmosphere. The temporary transfiguration of sea and sky recalls phenomena such as the arctic mirage witnessed in remote and high latitude settings.
Since completing an MA in Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design, Eva Rudlinger's practice uses light, space, scale and elemental materials as a catalyst to explore perceptions of time and the temporal, thoughts and feelings, mainly expressed in the medium of photography, film and sculpture. She has participated in selected screenings and exhibitions in national and international festivals and galleries.
http://www.evarudlinger.co.uk

[desı’re:] the Goldstein Reels, Dir. Romeo Grünfelder, Germany, 2006

An old celluloid film is labelled as being from the estate of Jack Goldstein. The unusual S8 footage is nevertheless difficult to interpret. Due to partially missing data, place, time and author cannot be determined and keep the beholder in the dark. The ongoing investigation has not been able to produce a reasonable explanation of the circumstances.
www.felderfilm.de

The Radiographer’s Daughter, Dir. Stasis73, UK, 2011She had played the harp so beautifully she was called before the king. The wind became jealous and mustered a great storm that came and washed them all away. A storm that created new land, such was its fury, in exchange for old. And now sunken towns and villages hold memories of the marks that hands had made in their walls….and on a clear day, if you listen ever so carefully, you can hear the music she played the king in amongst the lapping of the now gentle tide.
Stasis73 is a freeform post-experimental sound and film outfit. Drawn together by the chemistry of the random.The perfect number is 73, because 73 is the 21st prime number. The mirror of 73 is 37, the 12 prime number. 12's mirror is 21. The products of 21 are 7 and 3. 7 and 3 together equal 73.
www.stasis73.com 

Ash On My Skirt, Dir. Amy McDonough, UK, 2011 Ash On My Skirt tells the story of a mother scattering her son’s ashes at sea through the repeated and clashing musical refrains of a macabre Scottish folk ballad and the washing of the tides. It weaves together an address of an audience that is informational with something more lyrical.
Amy McDonough (Born Ashington Northumberland 1981.) BA English, Royal Holloway 2002. BA Fine Art, Goldsmiths 2006. PG Dip Fine Art, Royal Academy Schools 2011. Amy has exhibited films and performances both nationally and internationally: Bloomberg New Contemporaries, Clore Cinema Tate Britain and exhibitions in UK, Italy, Germany and Japan. She has recently been awarded the Deutsche Bank Award.

Dziwy Mórz Głębokich (The Deep Sea Wonders), Dir. Tymon Albrzykowski, Poland, 2010The film tells the twisted tale of a fantastic submarine expedition to the depths of the ocean to rescue a woman swallowed by a fish.
Tymon Albrzykowski was born in 1988. He studied film and artistic photography at the School of Arts in Gdynia (Poland) and graduated in 2008. Since October 2009 he studies at Lodz Film School (Poland) specializing in Animation Directing and Special Effects.

Oh Dreamland, Dir. Inez de Coo, UK, 2010
Made by combining photographs shot in Coney Island, New York and Dreamland, Margate with footage taken from the 1962 film Carnival of Souls, this video addresses the haunted feeling of abandoned fairs while suggesting that film and photography contain ghosts of their own in the way the mediums are created out of life and held in time. It is a video work with its own sense of time and logic that seduces the viewer as if it were a dream. 
Inez de Coo (Lutong, 1982) is a visual artist, specialising in video art. She completed her BA at the KABK in The Hague in 2008 and graduated from the Royal Academy Schools in summer 2011. She is interested in applying ideas from film theory alongside psychoanalysis and philosophy to explore the intersections between fiction and reality, exploring cinema’s role in shared social and cultural heritage as a record of collective memory.  www.inezdecoo.nl

The Salem Ghost Ship, Dir. Glenn Church, USA, 2011
The Salem Ghost Ship is based on the rich New England narrative folklore tradition. Ships from Salem sailed all over the world many never returning. This constant threat of untimely death would culminate in stories of ghost ships returning the souls of dead sailors back to the land they sailed from. 
Glenn Church’s work combines sound and its visual counterpart. He is interested in how these two disciplines combine to create ‘total’ and immersive psychological experiences. He works with multimedia to create expressions of social and psychological reactions to the 'personal' engagement with the world; both the 'seen' and the 'unseen'.  www.neophytecapsule.com

Mermaid Song, Dir. Nick Baxter, Jude Cowan, Joanna McCormick, UK, 2011
Mermaids squeeze the life out of sailors while attempting to rescue them.  “Now you're blinded by starlight, and so I do not know your salty skin, your sailor's gleam, the dazzle of your fine heart's beam.”
Mermaids' tears are freshwater pearls.
“I cannot swim, the water's fluttering drift eludes me in the night.”
When you see a mermaid beware rough weather ahead.
“Were you to join me here, and sit with me on shore, I would delight to take your hand and lead you to the ocean's roar.”
Eat a mermaid's flesh and become immortal.
“And glide immersed and drifting, embracing storm and calm.”
A mermaid's kisses will cure your ills.
“And infinite consolation of the seas' deep lustrous balm.”
Mermaid Song is a collaboration with film maker Nick Baxter, invented from snippets of footage gathered while searching for monstrous wonders of the deep at Highcliffe on the Dorset coast bordering Hampshire.The film is a playful exploration of haunting themes, including the elusive quality of dreams, mystery, longing and loss.
Jude Cowan and Joanna McCormick are artists who delight in the absurd, the surreal and the spontaneous. Jude is also a musician and published poet and Joanna is artist in residence at Peckham Settlement and is part of Westminster Arts' Resonate team. 
www.joart.info www.myspace.com/judecowan www.judecowan.blogspot.com
nicholas.baxter@btinternet.com

Edges of the Peripheries, Dir. Emma Caddow, UK, 2007 A phenomenological study.
Ephemeral gateways.
Transient precipitations.
A myriad of hopes.
This footage was shot at Harwich Seafront where the Doverport Lighthouse sit, which have been painted by John Constable.
Born in metropolis of Hong Kong, Emma travelled across a continent only to land in another metropolis, London. Having previously followed a more scientific career, a pivotal experience derailed her mathematical existence onto the free highway of art. Having recently completed a Fine Art BA at Middlesex University she specialises in film & video.
www.emmacaddow.com

West of Arran, Dir. Neil Baker, UK, 2011
A fisherman is slowly strangled by a jumper his mother knitted in this sparse tale of love, loss and revenge from beyond the grave. 
Neil Baker is a widely published writer of bitter-sweet short stories and surreal, unsettling tales. He lives near the sea, outside of Rye.
http://neilbaker.blogspot.com/

Joy, Dir. Kieron Clark, UK, 2007Joy tells the story of a modern-day miracle and of its effects on the residents of a small seaside town. 
Kieron Clark is a South London-based writer, producer and director with several short films under his belt, including the UK Film Council-funded Joy, which has screened at festivals including Raindance, Brest and Leeds, and the short dramas Still Life and Gas.  www.kieronclark.co.uk

Seaworthy, Dir. Ellen Lake and Chris Green, USA, 2010
Based on observations of everyday life – this short is an eclectic mix of cargo ships, tug boats, and sailboats shot on the Oakland Estuary, with a bluegrass soundtrack by Evie Ladin, and a body floating by – mixing fantasy and documentary, love and loss, while exploring the urban/marine landscape. 
Chris Green (scientist) and Ellen Lake (artist) join forces to make mechanical sculptures, videos, photographs, and installations. Working with metal, motors, electronics, and digital media they make art inspired from observations in everyday life. We are currently working on a series exploring contemporary urban space. Chris and Ellen live in Oakland, California. Ellen works at Kala Art Institute, a residency program for printmakers and digital media artists and Chris is an environmental scientist at the United States Geological Survey. Seaworthy has shown at the Director’s Lounge 2011 Urban Research Program “Places and Locations: Reality Check,” in Berlin, has traveled in Europe with Ciné Martiko, played at the Santa Fe International New Media Festival, “Currents 2011,” the Great Wall of Oakland, the Berkeley Art Center, and the Kala Art Gallery in Berkeley. 

GHost and Tall Tales

Paul Harris at the GHost CLHub photograph Sarah Sparkes

Paul Harris, local ghost story expert, visited the B&B Project Space over August Bank Holiday weekend. Matt Rowe recorded Paul's Ghost stories for his Tall Tales Project and GHost authenticated Paul's Tall tales Certificate with a GHost CLHub stamp.

Paul Harris is recorded telling a 'Tall Tale' to Matt Rowe. Photograph Sarah Sparkes

Paul with his 'Tall Tales' Certificate. Photograph Sarah Sparkes

Tall Tales - authenticated by GHost. Photograph Linda Barck

Haunted Folkestone - new works

Haunted Folkestone

 Paul Harris has been collecting ghost stories from Shepway for many years - enough to fill two fascinating anthologies.  

As part of our residency at the GHost CLHub we invited artists to make work in response to these stories.

Sarah Doyle "Crying Boy" Photograph by Sarah Sparkes

Sarah Doyle “Crying Boy” watercolour on paper, 9” x 7”, 2011

 Sarah Doyle has made a painting in response to a story in Paul Harris’ ‘Shepway Ghosts’ about the ghost of a young boy at the Royal Norfolk Hotel:

 ‘A waitress rushing to and fro from the kitchen to the bar noticed a young boy in brown ragged clothing “like an urchin of Dickens’ time” sitting on the stairs. Twice she passed the boy by who seemed unnaturally still and quiet. When he was still there when coming back from delivering an order she asked if he was alright.

“He started to cry, and looked at me with tears rolling down his cheeks, his eyes were bright blue, and then he just vanished, right there in front of my eyes,” The waitress explained

Linda Barck "Mary" Photograph by Sarah Sparkes

Linda Barck "Mary" drawing on glass with hair, silver leaf and silica, 2011                                                                         

"With sorrow and some intrigue I read theses stories of sudden and brutal death, young women that had their lives taken in acts of suicide, murder and war. As an aftermath their ghosts are now said to haunt the places where their lives where cut short. These drawings on glass with hair and silver leaf are reflections, mirages of the past while literally reflecting the present.   

Mary was brutally murdered after refusing the advantages of one of the chefs at her work place. Her ghost is said to haunt the Burstin Hotel (former Royal Pavilion Hotel) in Folkestone. She is still running from her murderer.  Her ghost appears, reflected in mirrors and glass, wearing a white dress with long flowing, black curly hair.

Edith (Edith Mary Grimes), killed by a German bomb in 1917. Her ghost is said to haunt 14 Tontine Street in Folkestone, where it tries to prevent people climbing the stairs to, presumably, where the impact of the bomb would have taken her life.

Jane Doe took her own life after a fight with her lover. She is said to haunt the Clifton hotel, Folkestone, in the very room where she committed suicide. Her ghost is described wearing a nightgown and emitting great sadness, sorrow and misery.

Additional Reference to Mary & Edith; Terry Begent, Go Folkestone Newsletter December 2007. Reference to 'Jane'; 2003, http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/50965/4c63

Jacqueline Utley, "Katherine, Elizabeth and the Grey lady" Photogragh by Sarah Sparkes

Jacqueline Utley "Katherine, Elizabeth and Grey Lady" Watercolour paint on old paper in frame,12 cm x 10cm, 2011                                                                                                                                                   

Jacqueline Utley makes still life paintings from abandoned ornaments and objects. Jacqueline talks of place in painting she attempts to arrive at ''where the observed and imagined can sort of merge together'' “In the Ghosts of Shepway by Paul Harris I became drawn to female ghosts in the stories especially Katherine Eve of Romney Marsh, Elizabeth of the New Inn and the Grey Lady of the Ship Inn, Dymchurch. I began to think of the loneliness of the three women ghosts. Katherine wandering the shore, Elizabeth in the New Inn and the Grey Lady of the Ship. I decided to make a drawing of the three women ghosts together imagining they may take some comfort from such a meeting”.

"Apparition in the Burstin Hotel" Photogragh Sarah Sparkes

Linda Barck came to assist at GHost CLHub over bank holiday weekend, GHost took her to visit the location where Mary's ghost has been sited.  This photograph was taken in the deserted dining room at the Grand Burstin Hotel, but is this Linda or Mary who has been captured by the camera?

GHost -New work- Aug bank holiday

Here are some images of the new work we installed at the GHost CLHub for August Bank Holiday.

New works by - Linda Barck, Sarah Doyle, Rebecca Feiner, Richard O'Sullivan, Sarah Sparkes, Sam Treadaway, Jacqueline Utley, Malcolm Hobbs & Colin Priest & Joe Reeves,

Also works by -

Miyuki Kasahara, Domingo Martínez Rosario, Ricarda Vidal and Cathy Ward

Matt Rowe, proprietor of the B&B Space, surveys the GHost CLHub. Photograph Ricarda Vidal

GHost CLHub Corner.  Photograph by Sarah Sparkes

Jacqueline Utley's watercolour in the B&B window photograph Ricarda Vidal

Jacqueline Utley has made work in response to one of Paul Harris' ghost story anthologies - more on this here

Sarah Doyle's 'Crying Boy' photograph Sarah Sparkes

Sarah Doyle has made work in response to one of Paul Harris' ghost story anthologies - more on this here

Rebecca Feiner "Hospital Ghost 1"  photograph Ricarda Vidal

Rebecca Feiner's prints are reminiscent of the Victorian curiosity for the supernatural, a time which coincided with Folkestone's heyday. Through their ghostly form the images also embody the sentiment of the 2011 theme 'a million miles from home'   as the artists manipulation and intervention directly challenges the function of the medical original, which was to make clear, to understand, so that a doctor could take action and intervene. Instead the artist has intervened to create a haunting mystery.

Rebecca Feiner's art has been described as both 'performative and visceral'. Experimenting with whatever medium necessary to achieve her aims she embraces filmmaking, sculpture, installation, photography and sonic art. Feiner sees herself less as an artist and more as a psychological detective, relentlessly investigating the forgotten, abandoned and lost.

Whether excavating memory, history, people, spaces or time, Rebecca Feiner’s  dark documentary quality is balanced by a child-like sense of fascination and discovery.. Her work has been featured by TimeOut, Daily Telegraph in the UK and internationally

Linda Barck "Edith" Photograph Ricarda Vidal

Linda Barck has made work in response to one of Paul Harris' ghost story anthologies - more on this here

Sam Treadaway, "Language of Flowers", drawing 2011


On the 8th of June 2011, in Washington D.C. USA, a specimen of the gigantic Armorphophallus Titanum, or corpse flower, released its putrid scent, likened to that of decaying cadavers: the stench of death.

Following a recent visit to Grasse in France and its Musée International de la Parfumerie, the leading centre for perfume and scent, the artist has imagined a ‘GHost perfume’ harvested from the recently flowering corpse flower in Washington D.C.

It is specifically the Washington D.C. flower that is of interest here. This is because Armorphophallus Titanum blossoms triennially. Flowering previously in 2008, the opening year of both the Folkestone Triennial and GHost and now in 2011, the Washington D.C. flower should blossom to coincide with all future Triennials.

The drawing shows the molecular structure of Cadaverine – emitted by the decomposing  flesh  of corpses – and a  bottle of the aptly titled perfume Enchanted Bloom by the brand GHOST. The name is changed to read instead GHost. The composition also includes a symbol used in the perfume industry for florals, containing within it three numbers that refer to years; 95 – the year the seed of the Washington D.C corpse flower was sown, and 08 and 11 the years of the previous and current bloom. Three Armorphophallus Titanum seeds, at the base of the GHost perfume complete the drawing.

The powerful corpse-like odours of the Amorphophallus Titanum, bottled especially for the GHost project is an indicator of death and through association, the unknowable realms of the after-life. The largest flowering plant in the world smells not fragrant, but foul.

"Fishing Lines" projected at GHost CLHub photograph Ricarda Vidal

“Fishing Lines”, silent film, 3 min, 2010,
from the series “Greetings from DEAL” by Colin Priest, Malcolm Hobbs and Joe Reeves

Broadly the extent of any condition exists between the material and immaterial. The opportunity to articulate these curious physical margins were explored as a part of an on-going exploration of the coastal town of Deal, Kent over the weekend 3-6th September 2010. Greetings from DEAL represent five states of meta-existence in a place some consider invisible and others salted with activity. Through various modes of recording and re-presentation as postcards of contemporary, fictionalised and historical narratives, a new lens to view Deal awakens. Other films in the series include “Historic Deal”, 2010, “Persuasion”, 2010, “Spratter Portraits”, 2010 and “Smuggling”, 2010.

http://www.studiocolumba.com/

“Deck”, digital film, 8:10m, 2010,
Richard O’Sullivan 

Inside the boat, in the anodyne human spaces, the protective womb of the ship erases the traces of the outside. Beyond the barricade, the sea roars. The corroded, wind-blown deck, trembling with seawater, seems like a liminal space between the human and the wild.
This very simple piece is a portrayal of the deck of a sea ferry in rough water.

Richard O’Sullivan is an artist in new media. He graduated from the M.F.A. program in Film Production/ Direction at U.C.L.A Film School in Los Angeles (University of California at L.A.), and from the University of Warwick. His videos explore the meanings of place, and have focused on the contradictions of the Californian landscape. Other works have explored visual perception and video technology. The artist has also produced documentaries, which follow personal narratives. Work in this area includes the feature-length  Cradle, the production of which was undertaken with the mentorship of Marina Goldovskaya. He currently teaches Experimental Media and Media Production at Aberystwyth University, UK.
http://www.richardosullivan.net/Index.html

Matt Rowe's ceramic skulls  photograph Sarah Sparkes