Belated
Belated is a mediation on community, belonging and the history of place made during the global pandemic of 2020. Working in a historic rural market town in the South West of England, Mohini Chandra replaces the bells of a local church, fallen silent under lockdown, with the ankle bells of an Indian dancer. Projected into empty silent bell ringers’ chamber, her movements track a poem by Rabrindranath Tagore, who spent time in residence at the nearby Dartington Estate. As the film builds in intensity, from the empty bell chamber to the crescendo of ankle bells, the dancer’s steps seem to echo the artists daily walks to the River Dart and an intensified appreciation of nature. The work was made by Chandra in the summer of 2020, working under socially distanced conditions, with an international team of collaborators based in India, Australia and the UK.
If you wish to fill your pitcher, then come, oh come, to the stream of my heart…
Hriday Yamuna/ The Heart's Yamuna, a poem by Rabindranath Tagore (1892)
(translation by Ananda Lal and Sukanta Chaudhuri)
Credits
Mohini Chandra (Totnes) -Artist/Producer/Director
Beccy Strong (Totnes)-Camera and Editing
Moushumi Bhowmik (Kolkata)- Reading
Lalita Lakshmi (Brisbane)- Dancing (via Zoom)
With many thanks to St Mary’s Church, Totnes.
A 12 minute filmwork.
Commissioned by Autograph for Care I Contagion I Community – Self & Other (2020)
© the artist / Courtesy of Autograph, London
click on link here
https://autograph.org.uk/commissions/mohini-chandra
