A Handful of Notes (after Sylvia Plath)

A film directed and produced in collaboration with dance artist Seraina Dejaco.

A film that is neither documentary or fiction, ‘A handful of notes (after Sylvia Plath)’ is an abstract and poetic investigation into how it is possible to express oneself creatively within the physical, psychological/emotional and time changes and boundaries of becoming a mother and looking after a young baby.

Our first collaborative project, this hybrid work aims to convey feelings directly through the senses and draws on my interest and experience in experimental film and editing, sonic art, choreography and installation art with Seraina’s experience as a dancer and in choreography.

Parenthood is a theme often marginalised in art but one that also fits with our interest in body and movement, identity, memory, work and leisure and freedom and restriction, subjects of relevance to most people.

Close up framing and collage editing techniques that highlight the repetitive nature of labour in the home are employed. These methods also create a depersonalised but at the same time intimate examination of a woman seeking to find a balance between her new identity as a mother and dance artist. This is further expressed through a soundtrack comprised of mixed and manipulated baby sounds, the made-up songs and baby communicating sounds made by the mother together with domestic and urban sounds. The result is a ‘dance’ work produced in the private domestic arena; made in the home for consumption in the wider public world.