Louyre - this our still life

This work is the result of an ongoing enquiry into the ideas behind autobiography, the psyche and its geography. Drawing upon the personal relationship I have had with a particular part of the French Pyrenees, along with my wife and daughter, Louyre –This Our Still Life focuses on an abandoned farmhouse that has become our ‘home’ on and off for the last 25 years. Louyre –This Our Still Life is a portrait of the house as seen through the eyes and ears of the family that lives there. Film and video footage taken over 20 years has been edited in an existential and impressionistic way to evoke a sense of isolated and contemplative living. ‘Still Life’ alludes both to the drawings and paintings I have made with my daughter Eden over the years, and to the quietness of existence in such isolated surroundings. The multiple forms for the work reflect my ongoing investigations into ‘expanded cinematic language’: the moving image has been deconstructed and re-presented alongside drawings, paintings and texts relating to consistent themes in my work, such as The Great Out Of Doors, Autobiography and Memory. Louyre – This Our Still Life is also a bi-lingual bookwork and an installation. The feature film premiered in competition at the 2011 Venice Film Festival; the installation showed at Brighton University Gallery in November 2011 as part of Cinecity, coinciding with the cinema release at BFI South Bank and other venues including Curzon Renoir, Curzon Wimbledon and Cornerhouse Cinema, Manchester. Drawings and paintings from the project were exhibited at the Old Fire Station Gallery, Oudernaade, Belgium, in 2011 and the Contemporary Art Gallery, Geneva, 2012. In 2012 the BFI released the film on DVD, alongside a re-edited version of the bookwork. The research was supported by the BFI, LUX, and other funders