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Video Club 008: Frances Scott / Slip of Telecine
In Video Club 008, ‘Slip of Telefone,’ Coated Spirits in collaboration with Nastassja Simensky are extending a speculative portrait/fan letter to artist Frances Scott. “To think of her in orbit […] to create proximity by distant means.” Following the previous definition of a fan letter, we are rehearsing a weft of readings, (field) recordings, and incantations: from Ursula K. Le Guin’s speculative glossaries of far distant times to Annie Dillard’s total eclipses and devouring shadows, and from David Tompkins’ “slip of telecine” to the aurality of film strips from the cutting room floor. We listen, with windows open to a summer night. Frances Scott is an artist working with moving image, her work considers the narratives and histories at the periphery of cinematic production and its apparatus. Her films are informed by a collaborative and research-led process, and since 2016 she has worked closely with filmmaker and sound designer Chu-Li Shewring. Their first co-authored moving image work, ‘Wendy’ (2023) is a film fan letter and response to the work of composer, electronic music innovator and polymath, Wendy Carlos. Commissioned by TACO!, London, ‘Wendy’ is in exhibition until 9 July 2023. The film was preceded by ‘Incantation, Wendy’ (2021) published by An Endless Supply / Bobo books, with contributors including Beth Bramich, Valentina Formenti, Stine Hebert, Juliet Jacques, Mat Jenner, Tom Richards and Dave Tompkins. Previous presentations of Frances’ work include: Curzon Soho, London (2023); BFI, London; Curtocircuíto – International Film Festival, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Rencontres Internationales, Paris/Berlin (2021/2022); ‘Mattflix’ Matt’s Gallery, London; Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester; 38th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival; 67. International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (LUX distribution programme); transmediale, HKW, Berlin; CTM Festival, Berlin; ‘Unsung Stories: Women at Columbia Computer Music Center,’ New York (2021); and 57th New York Film Festival (2019). She was awarded The Stuart Croft Foundation Moving Image Award (2017). Her films are distributed by LUX. Credits Voice Recordings: Ioannis Andronikidis & Nastassja Simensky Sound Excerpts: ‘Diviner’ (2017) by Frances Scott | BBC Archive | NASA Archive | “Music and Poetry of the Kesh” by Ursula K. Le Guin and Todd Barton | ‘rehearsal letter’ (2021) by Tom Richards and Frances Scott. Textual references: “Total Eclipse,” from Annie Dillard’s ‘Teaching a Stone to Talk’ (Harper Perennial, 1982) | ‘Winter is a planet’ by David Tompkins (Matt’s Gallery, 2021) | “Their Waving Signals a Moon,” by David Tompkins from ‘Incantation, Wendy’ (An Endless Supply, 2021) Access to the films: LUX, Frances Scott |
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