Cally Trench: Films
| Cally Trench makes short films, mostly timelapse films made from hundreds of still images.
You can see Cally Trench's films by going to Cally Trench's YouTube channel. Cally is delighted that composer Josh Hagley has written music specially for some of her films, resulting in work that is exciting for both sight and sound. See Josh Hagley's website and a page about Josh Hagley on this website. |
Watch Roses Hat |
Watch Words you
could say instead of CHEESE |
Watch Peephole Hut
on Youtube |
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Roses Hat (2016) is made up of photographs taken on a 1950s Kodak Brownie 127 camera using black-and-white film, with the hat coloured by hand digitally. The music was specially written for the film by composer Josh Hagley in 2017. Roses Hat was shown in Videovada 2017, Festival of the Moving Image, OVADA, Oxford on 15th June 2017. Taking photographs and being photographed with a 1950s Kodak Brownie 127 film camera, with the need to pause and pose, means that the occasion is a memorable single moment. We still conventionally say 'cheese' as we pose, but, as we increasingly take unposed snaps with our digital cameras, the need for a single perfect grin is removed. For Words you could say instead of CHEESE, Cally Trench invited people to try out other words, with different vowel sounds, as she photographed them with a Brownie 127 camera. Words you could say instead of CHEESE was shown in Videovada 2017, Festival of the Moving Image, OVADA, Oxford on 15th June 2017. "What lovely results for a great idea - a slightly odd thing to do for a (now) slightly idiosyncratic camera." (John McDowall, 2016)"Great film! Giggled throughout!" (Steve Perfect, 2016)Cally Trench and Philip Lee performed Peephole Hut on 17th November 2016 in Visions in the Nunnery, curated by Cinzia Cremona and Tessa Garland, at Bow Arts, The Nunnery, 181 Bow Road, London. Cally Trench and Philip Lee presented a black hut, which both hid and revealed the performers as they played and competed with each other within their golden lair. The film, which Cally Trench speeded up and edited, is fast-moving and jerky in the manner of old silent movies, with music written specially for the film in 2016 by composer Josh Hagley. The film of Peephole Hut was shown in Live Art Cinema: It's Alive!, organised by Homes for Waifs and Strays and the Magic Cinema, at The Edge, Birmingham on 25th May 2017. |
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Pink House (2016), Ice Lollies (2015), Sphinx (2015) and Window (2014) are animated films based on Cally Trench's linocut prints. The music for Pink House and Sphinx were specially written for the films by composer Josh Hagley in 2016. Pink House was shown in Videovada 2017, Festival of the Moving Image, OVADA, Oxford on 15th June 2017. "Your videos are great and very funny. I love the fact you take linocut prints to this level of almost seeing them being made." (Valérie Mary, 2015)"Love the videos with the music. Work well together, enhance each other to make one fuller, more complex whole." (Sophie Loss, 2017) |
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In Cemetery Botany (2014), photographs of stone carvings of flowers on Victorian and Edwardian graves are animated. The music was specially written for the film by composer Josh Hagley in 2016. The earlier silent version of Cemetery Botany was shown in Videovada 2016 Festival of the Moving Image at OVADA, Oxford, on 24th June 2016. "I love the Cemetery Botany one, the opposition between life and death... It's just great." (Valérie Mary, 2015)"Cemetery Botany – simple but beautiful." (Diana Bell, 2015)"Mmmmm... interesting, they instantly have the Cally Trench playful pop art manner about them. There is the feeling of passage of time, change, aging and the essence of revitalisation. Cemeteries are amazing places, markers of past lives. There is something satisfying and worthwhile about freshly retracing directly over the old. I like colouring in, not enough importance is placed on the process. I really like it when you colour in the leaves and the different ways you colour them. Lurid colours over mouldy stone is quite funny really; of course to an artist/historian it reads as a playful nod to the original coloured intentions of ancient sculpture, the digital application really highlights the colouring process well I think." (Guy Tarrant, 2015)"J’aime beaucoup cette video. Simple, explicite et l’idée me plait. Les tombes sont toujours très mornes et cela fait du bien de voir ce qu’ils imaginaient en les faisant c’était finalement bien plus gai que le résultat bien trop sage." (Kaliko, 2015)A Walk in the Cemetery (2010/2015), shows a lanky Chaplinesque young man, dressed in a black suit, white shirt and black bow tie and carrying a black furled umbrella, walking along a tree-lined path in a cemetery - suggestive of the final scene in Carol Reed's 1949 film The Third Man. Banquet (2013) is a timelapse film showing a sociable meal shared by artists and guests at the private view of Do you remember it - or weren't you there? on Wednesday 30 January 2013 at London Gallery West, University of Westminster (Harrow Campus). In the film, four hours is compressed into one and a half minutes. The Banquet was created by Cally Trench with help from Lorraine Pepper, Hepzibah Hill and Philip Lee, and contributions from the artists. Do you remember it - or weren't you there? was supported by the Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, University of Westminster. |
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Hand (2016) is a short silent timelapse film made up of drawings that Cally Trench made of her left hand, which appears to drum on a surface or maybe play invisible musical instruments. The music was specially written for the film by composer Josh Hagley in 2016. Exercise Slip Silent Movie (2012) is a timelapse film by Cally Trench which shows the performance artist Philip Lee attempting to complete a set of 5BX exercises while naked and entirely covered in clay slip - a homage to fitness in the year that the Olympics came to London. The jerky movements and almost entirely black and white pallette are reminiscent of early cinema - both Muybridge and Buster Keaton. Exercise Slip Silent Movie was shown in At Play 2012 at OVADA, Oxford and in Hoopla! at the Sugarhouse Studios, London. It was also shown in Do you remember it - or weren't you there? at London Gallery West and in the British Ceramics Biennial in Stoke-on-Trent in 2013. Flashes (2012): People like taking photographs of live performances, and these 'snapshots' from video footage of a performance by Philip Lee and Cally Trench show the bits that people found interesting enough to take a flash photograph of. When editing footage of a live performance, the flashes might often be bits to edit out. In this film they are all edited in. What you see in this 30-second timelapse film is still 'snapshots' of each flash, followed by a 'snapshot' of the moment immediately afterwards for contrast. The flashes vary in intensity, and some create jagged gashes of light. The performance itself was Double Helix, devised and performed by Philip Lee and Cally Trench at The Rubik's Cube, The Joiners Arms, Hackney, London, on 29th January 2012. The Rubik's Cube was curated by Iceberg Fernandez. |
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Cally Trench, Judy Goldhill |
Cally Trench, Judy Goldhill and Philip Lee |
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In Skin and Slip (2012), the naked surface of a man's head and shoulders are distorted by viscous clay slip, creating a new surface, which is then partially washed away: a metamorphosis referencing aging and bodily mutability. This is a timelapse film of a performance for camera devised by Philip Lee and Cally Trench, and performed by Philip Lee. Danger Money (2011) is a timelapse film of Cally Trench original board game Danger Money being played. Somersaults (2011) contains nudity of an entirely non-sexual and stripy kind. It features performance artist Philip Lee, painted in stripes by Cally Trench, and photographed by Judy Goldhill. The film was edited by Cally Trench. The Camouflage Flipbook Movie (2011) contains nudity of an entirely non-sexual and stripy nature. The performance artist Philip Lee rotates as stripes of paint descend his body. A film by Cally Trench, Judy Goldhill and Philip Lee. A 101-second version of The Camouflage Flipbook Silent Movie was shown as part of Project 101 Video Installation at The LAB Gallery, New York (an AMBruno project curated by Sophie Loss) in November 2011. |
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The Horse's Mouth (2011) is a short animation film, created from a series of drawings and collages made on paper, and in some cases altered on computer. The music was specially written for the film by composer Josh Hagley in 2016. Unwrapping (2011) is a timelapse film of a parcel being unwrapped. The parcel was exhibited in Parcel Fever at the Keep, Reading (curated by Ingrid Jensen), 14th-15th October 2011 as part of Reading's Nuit Blanche. The object in the wrapping was made by Cally Trench, and it was wrapped in collaboration with Philip Lee. |
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Face (2010) focuses on one man's face. He starts by blinking and smiling, like a simple computer animation, but his choreographed expressions become more and more extravagant and extraordinary, before reverting back to blinking and smiling. The music for Face was specially written for the film by composer Josh Hagley in 2017. The early silent version of Face was shown as part of Project 101 Video Installation, The LAB Gallery, New York (an AMBruno project curated by Sophie Loss) in November 2011, along with Chess Wars, The Black Hat and a 101-second version of The Camouflage Flipbook Silent Movie. Face with music written by Josh Hagley is being shown in Faces by Cally Trench in the special exhibitions gallery at Buckinghamshire County Museum, Aylesbury, 15th July to 9th September 2017. In Chess Wars (2010), the board becomes a playground for chess gymnastics and a battle ground between chess and draughts pieces. The music was specially written for the film by composer Josh Hagley in 2016. In 2011, the early silent version of Chess Wars was shown in At Play 3 at South Hill Park, Bracknell (curated by Outi Remes and Cally Trench) and in Project 101 Video Installation, The LAB Gallery, New York (an AMBruno project curated by Sophie Loss). |