Charlotte Pryce

Charlotte Pryce's innocent observations of striders dancing on the water's surface in "Of This Beguiling Membrane" conceal darker glimpses of what lurks beneath. Inspired by Scottish folklorist Robert Kirk's "The Secret Commonwealth" (1671), Pryce arranges a meeting with the mysterious spirits lying in wait. What happens when we tempt fate and provoke that which we aren’t supposed to see? A reminder of the dangerous seduction of beauty.

After receiving a VHS tape claiming she's a disciple of an alien species called the "True Mothers," Amy joins a local UFO cult, donning the name Celisse and befriending a number of other members, all while being under the watch of the cult's peculiar founder, Ascenia.

This live, vintage magic lantern performance tells the colourful story of a reluctant outlaw, a scavenger, a visionary. It is a science-fiction fable for the Anthropocene told with the delicate light of the magic lantern. It is a work of pre-cinematic moving images, with slides that are handmade and hand processed.

Pwdre ser is the Welsh name for the mythical substance star jelly that has been observed since the 1400s. The film depicts an encounter with a mysterious, luminous, electrical substance. Inspired equally by medieval accounts of visionary experiences and by 19th-century photography of the invisible, Pwdre Ser joins coronal Kirlian photography with hand-processed images.

Delicate threads of energy spiral and transform into mysterious microscopic cells of golden dust: these are the luminous particles of the alchemist’s dream. Prima Materia is inspired by the haunting wonderment of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura. It is an homage to the first, tentative photographic records that revealed the extraordinary nature of phenomena lurking just beyond the edge of human vision.

The film takes its title from chapter three of Lewis Caroll's Through the Looking-Glass. This play of observation makes use of magnifying glasses, used by both entomologists and filmmakers alike. The magnifying glasses can be seen as a visual metaphor for the cinematic process. Yet the insects of the story dissolve into darkness.

A live performance with vintage magic lanterns and handmade lantern slides tells the tale of famed naturalist Hudson's spellbinding recollection of birds seen as a child from the pampas of his native Argentina. But the magic lantern also brings out other, hidden layers, including an encounter with nature teetering between joy and dread.

Witness an alchemist's spell: the transmutation of light into substance. A glimpse of gold.

Witness an alchemist's spell: the transmutation of light into substance. A glimpse of gold.

Witness an alchemist's spell: the transmutation of light into substance. A glimpse of gold.

A metaphorical exploration of Tenniel’s illustrated edition of Lewis Caroll’s Through the Looking-Glass. Through careful illumination, the book’s illustrations retreat into the fibre of the page, and a fleeting light dissolves into the chemistry of the film’s emulsion, revealing and yet concealing a story that is but glimpsed.

An intoxicating flower; a metaphorical insect; a longing reach across the centuries. The Parable of the Tulip Painter and the Fly is a philosophical search drenched in luminous colours and sparkling light. The film was shot on colour reversal, entirely hand-processed and re-printed on the optical printer. "Having grown the exquisite tulip, I feel deeply under its spell--an affliction shared by an artist from another time and place, yet the dilemma we faced was shared: to fall for such a luxurious and temporary beauty raised a fear (a reminder--a fly) of the transience of life" - CP

"Sandy Ding's WATER SPELL is a bold, abstract journey that takes us into the psychic interior of our very cellular structure... and back. For me, this film is about reincarnation and transformation, on both the spiritual and sub-atomic levels. This is not an easy film, but it is a powerful one."

--Nina Menkes

Three Miniature, Illuminated, Heliographic studies of plants, observed and imagined. Fragile leaves and very fine threads of fungus string together in Charlotte Pryce’s three plant studies. Plants and images of the plants, and their envisioned environments, are intertwined. The title is taken from an obscure genre of 17th century painting: Forest Floor Paintings, which placed plants into a 'real' environment as opposed to a vase.

A kinematographic film comprised of five brief fictions in which the mystery of insect flight is explored. Interpretations of a mythological and fantastical nature are illuminated in motion and time. Includes: Thin Breath-quivering, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, Departure from the Garden, Conjuring Forth the Firefly and Keepers of the Labyrinth.

A dirge, a dance. A portrait of stillness and silence disturbed by the urgency of sadness. The film is composed of paintings from the Northern Renaissance, collaged and combined with hand-painted, hand-processed and optically manipulated images of seashells, hands and dolls. The Ave Maria is sung by Rosa Ponselle, the dancer is Annie Morad.