The Screen

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Ruth Sewellthe [...] space

24 August - 08 September 2013

'Art Was Everything, Everything Was Art' are words taken from a eulogy for Patricia Briggs, a much loved Swansea-based artist who passed away in 2012. Briggs used found objects in her work, which was an extension of the obsessive passion for collecting and recycling that led to her home being stacked floor to ceiling with paintings, drawings, paper, costumes, figurines, toys, sculpture, pottery - esoteric items that might otherwise have been lost to landfill. 

 

The film introduces us to Briggs' terraced cottage onVincent Streetafter three weeks of intensive clearance, which sent much of her collection back to the charity shops from whence it came. Even after three weeks it's clear that the house hadn't been used as a functioning domestic space in many years; the bath, oven and sinks are gradually being excavated but are still full of collectables; the bed is buried under a mountain of records, books, and kitsch; layers of thick dust is found in areas impassable and untouched for years. As the team, which includes artists Andrew Douglas-Forbes, Kathryn Faulkner and Robin Sewell work their way through the house they discover incredible treasures and long lost works of art. 

 

‘Art Was Everything’ examines the legacy of a unique artist and an eccentric friend. It offers an intimate portrait of an obsessive collector and questions the symbolic potency of material possessions. To extend the quote from Pat’s brother Richard Briggs' eulogy: "She could find equal wonder looking up at the stars as she could looking down into a skip. Her practice never rested. For her, art was everything, and everything was art."

 

About | Ruth Sewell

Ruth Sewellis a filmmaker and photographer based inLondon. She directs promos, music videos and short films and is currently writing her first feature. Her latest short film, ‘Fish Love’, is currently doing the festival circuit.

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