SPEAKING THROUGH WATER
Video and concept by Nathalie Latham
Soundscape by Tamara Friebel
5 min 43 sec looped projection
accompanied with 7 still images by Nathalie Latham 2006
This work began from a dream I had in Beijing, China, exactly a year after my father died. I had not been allowed me to speak at his funeral, which I felt was an important rite of passage. In my dream I was shouting, saying how important it was for me to speak at my father's funeral. No one could hear me. It felt like I was speaking behind thick glass and at times, through water.
Video and concept by Nathalie Latham
Soundscape by Tamara Friebel
5 min 43 sec looped projection
accompanied with 7 still images by Nathalie Latham 2006
This work began from a dream I had in Beijing, China, exactly a year after my father died. I had not been allowed me to speak at his funeral, which I felt was an important rite of passage. In my dream I was shouting, saying how important it was for me to speak at my father's funeral. No one could hear me. It felt like I was speaking behind thick glass and at times, through water.
I took this dream experience into a physical process where I wrote down on paper what was important for me to say, and then filmed myself saying these words into a square, glass box of water. In turn, I asked others from my community in Beijing to do the same. As I was in China, I assumed their concerns would be of political issues, the larger picture. Surprisingly, people wrote more about emotional censorship and personal difficulties.
