Souconna

the film August, 1838 is a draft scene from a longer work of speculative fiction. the installation, Souconna, presents a scenographic reconstruction of the bedroom in which the film’s protagonist is caught in an amnesiac rêverie. in the space: a silvered waterlily (conjured from the saône river), three gum bichromate prints of riverine vegetation and flora, an amphora turned from robinia pseudoacacia.


August, 1838. Digital. 15:57.

Silvered waterlily (nuphar lutea) —— Sand-cast aluminium, inscribed steel bar. Robinia Pseudoacacia amphora —— Wood-turned Robinia Pseudoacadia from Rhône Valley, welded steel bar mount with inscription —— Swans under Spiraea Japonica, Nuphar Lutea of Saône, East of Fourvière & Saône over Hydrangea Quercifolia. Gum Bichromate print (double exposure), 1mm steel frame (patinated).

* produced for Grace Aotearoa (see further detail here), with support from Creative New Zealand. Photographs Samuel Hartnett.