Yorkshire Artist Bruce Rimell presents an intimate exploration of landscape during the 2020-21 Covid-19 lockdowns
Yorkshire artist Bruce Rimell is proud to bring you his first longform art film, 'There's Life On Broken Ground', produced over 15 months during the 2020-21 Covid-19 pandemic. Created from his 2020 music album of the same name, the film runs through 16 ‘episodes’ exploring different seasons, landscapes and feelings, all presented as intimate and emotional responses to the local landscape and the strange situations of life during a global pandemic.
:: There's Life On Broken Ground (August 2020 - November 2021) ::
When the Covid-19 lockdowns began, it seemed everyone was trying to find their own ways to cope with this new, strange life. For Bradford-based artist Bruce Rimell, it was to abandon his usual painting practice and start making ambient music and going for long walks in the local area.
Amazed by the hidden secrets of what he found on his doorstep – Northcliffe Woods, Red Beck, Baildon Moor – he began filming some of his discoveries on his Samsung S9 phone, and he realised that these little videos seemed to match well with the music he was making.
:: Cup And Ring Marks (short preview of main film) ::
His art/music film ‘There’s Life On Broken Ground’, which he has just released on YouTube, is the result of all this work. It was filmed mostly during the strange days of last autumn, winter and spring, and uses overlaying techniques to mix autumnal images of fallen leaves with snowy textures, freshly emerged flowers, tree blossoms, sweeping landscapes and city lights, as well as video shot in Bruce’s art studio at home.
A 48-minute, Slow-TV relaxing voyage though abstract landscape textures and beautiful music, journeying from autumn through to spring, it captures some of the ways in which Bruce transformed the emotional difficulties of lockdown into something creative.
“What really struck me,” Bruce says, when talking about how he made the film, “Was how quickly I went from feeling stuck at home in lockdown, to sending myself out on long walks with my husband, looking for interesting things to record.”
“Baildon Moor was a great place to chance upon unexpected stories: there was the parasender trying to get airborne with his giant parachute, while on another day we found a pile of ash surrounded by flowers, and it gave the day a bit of a mystical feel, remembering all those who’ve passed away during the pandemic. That was a beautiful moment.”
Other days, he went further afield, to Settle in North Yorkshire, Kinder Scout in Derbyshire, or Filey on the East Yorkshire coast, but his gaze never wavered from catching intimate images and close-up details. Before long, his growing library of video images had coalesced into the film.
“There’s something really life-affirming,” he says, “About trying to keep a spirit of optimism alive during the darkest days of the pandemic and the long winter lockdown.
“It’s a bit rough and ready in places, but I hope that this easy-going film will help to remind people that although many of us have felt like we’re living on broken ground recently, there’s still life and beauty to be enjoyed, even our own doorstep and in our local area. We just have to seek it out.”
