Carolyn Marr
“Stuff” film description
Using multi-layered sound, photography, video and text, my short art-archaeology film Stuff (09:49) delivers a multi-sensory exploration of the stuff we accumulate and how we feel about it. What is it? Where did we get it? What does it sound and smell like? How does it feel? Is it trash or treasure? If we have too much, how do we get rid of it?
The mound-like forms appearing in the film are inspired by terps – pre-medieval dwelling mounds in what is now Friesland and Northern Germany. Constructed from organic materials like cow dung and turf, these mounds contain ambiguous materials – pottery fragments, animal bones. Were these rubbish or ritual deposits?
Combining my own stuff (from my ceramic-based practice) piling up in my greenhouse, with the thoughts of other creative practitioners who were interviewed about their stuff, the film moves from the personal to the public, connecting the paraphernalia of practice to global concerns about overconsumption, waste and the climate crisis.
The film is the digital component of a three-part multi-media installation titled Stuffworks, consisting of sculpture (Stuffterp, image 1), a series of text-based pieces (Wordterps, images 2&3) and film (Stuff, stills in images 4,5&6). The film can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/904899161).
It was created in 2023-2024 for my Contemporary Art and Archaeology MA final project at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).
Stuff was selected for two UK film festivals in 2024: Hull’s Unthinkable short film festival and Lewes-based Women over Fifty Film Festival (WOFFF), where it won a Commended Award for best student film. It was also screened at 37 Looe Street Gallery, Plymouth, as part of the CHAT Archaeology (Contemporary and Historical Archaeology in Theory) annual conference, November 2024.
Artist Statement
I’m a UK-based artist with a background in languages, ecological justice and human rights work. I have a BA in Modern Languages and an MA in Southeast Asian Area Studies, and have lived and worked in Asia (Japan, Malaysia) and Europe (Austria, Italy). I’ve travelled widely in Asia as well as the US and Canada.
Primarily working in clay, I’ve latterly moved into site-specific installation and film, recently graduating with distinction in Contemporary Art and Archaeology (MA) from University of the Highlands and Islands, Orkney.
My work is experimental and collaborative, with an approach to materials and making is both interrogatory and celebratory. As well as the visual, I pay close attention to the tactile nature of the materials I use, to the sounds of materials and making, and to their changing nature through time.
www.instagram.com/carolyn.marr.ceramics/
For details about the MA in Contemporary Art and Archaeology: www.uhi.ac.uk/en/courses/ma-contemporary-art-and-archaeology/
