TATSUKO: screening at Studio 75 Nov. 7th, 2012
Tatsuko is an extraordinary project, and encompasses all of the
prodigious skills and talents that a master of their craft can
accomplish. Glenn Ibbitson’s 40-min film is a hauntingly beautiful,
dramatically gripping yet enigmatic film that draws the viewer into a
world dominated by a strange landscape, where the familiar becomes alien
and human relationships are intense yet completely distant.
The story is simple: a hooded man arrives at a remote farmhouse. The
artist who inhabits the house, goes about her daily self absorbed
routine, oblivious to the dark figure watching her. Slowly he begins to
inhabit her territory, watching, waiting. Scuttling away when she is
near, yet closer to her than her own breath. Is he real, or a shadow? Is
he malign, or a guardian angel?
The film’s cinematography is breathtaking, making the most of both
the wild Welsh landscape, and the way that ordinary interiors can be
imbued with suspense. In their majestic stillness, the shots breathe the
artistry of Antonioni, while the enigmatic yet intense story echoes
Tarkovsky.
The entire film was made by Ibbitson, with a magnificent soundtrack
by Wyn Lewis Jones. The script, scenography, camera, lighting, editing
is all done by Ibbitson, and it is a shock to realise that since before
the credit you imagine this is film that took a significant budget and a
crew. But no. Having previously made a number of short films,
Ibbitson’s status as a master painter can be seen and felt in every
frame. Tatsuko, as well as being hugely entertaining, is an object
lesson in how that most traditional of art forms, painting, can be a
discipline and a catalyst to electrify and deliver art cinema of the
highest quality.
Tatsuko the film is accompanied by a substantial published book that
can be purchased showing all of the drawings that are integral to the
film. The drawings themselves, in a concertina book form, are also
available for exhibition
Gillian McIver-Tanbouli Director, Studio 75 London
Gillian McIver, Canadian artist and writer born in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK and raised in Vancouver is a writer, curator and film-maker.
After studying history and philosophy, she moved to
London where, in 1997, she set up an international underground
art collective, known as
Luna Nera in the abandoned Colosseum theatre in East London. Since that time, she has participated in various projects with
Luna Nera,
exhibiting in a wide variety of venues in different countries
throughout Europe including the UK, Canada, Russia, Finland, Germany,
Switzerland, Ireland and Italy. She continues to co-ordinate
Luna Nera which makes temporary site-specific projects in unusual yet significant sites. Her own work consists primarily of
video and
photographic
images which explore history, memory and place. She made “Places” a
collection of short films – made about strange sites in Berlin, Moscow,
St Petersburg, Paris and Belfast – exploring the lost fragments that
trace the past, and reveal the transitory nature of human existence.
http://www.artsite.org.uk/