Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

Empire of the Swamp (2023) begins with a figure wandering from the mangrove swamps surrounding the city edges of Singapore to Bukit Brown Cemetery in the heart of the island, overgrown and rich with biodiversity, once the final resting place for 100, 000 people. This green space is slowly being swallowed up, graves exhumed to make way for new roads and eventually new housing. A script, written by playwright Joel Tan, is a fable of nature and the repercussions of colonialism. A tale of a crocodile who comes upon the soul of a English soldier lost in the swamps. Empire of the Swamp was part of Atomic Light, David Blandy’s most ambitious solo project to date at John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK. Featuring four newly commissioned films, it builds upon his continued interest in history, the legacy of empire and the climate crisis. The tales interconnect through the story of Blandy’s grandfather, a British soldier interred in Singapore as a Japanese prisoner of war, who believed that the horrific atomic bombing of Hiroshima saved his life. Empire of the Swamp was commissioned by John Hansard Gallery, UK & Supported by Arts Council England

David Blandy (1976, UK, Lives & works in Brighton) makes work that slips between performance and video, digital and analogue, investigating the stories and cultural forces that inform and influence our lives. Collaboration is central to his practice, examining communal and personal heritage and interdependence. With research spanning multiple forms of archive, from fandoms to the archive of the body, historic texts to academic libraries, archaeology and ecological theory, twitch streams and film archives, Blandy weaves poetic works that explore the complexities of the contemporary subject. He is represented by Seventeen Gallery, London, UK. His films are distributed by LUX, London, UK.