“We are Earthlife maturing…”  - 'Parable of the Sower' by Octavia E Butler 

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Humankind is in its infancy - a period highlighted by technological prowess, as well as by the chaos of war, injustice, and our extreme manipulation of the physical world. In order to reach maturity we must look to the stars, but what kind of life awaits us on other planets? 

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Drawing on research from the 'Trickster, Teacher, Chaos, Clay' CRATE Studio residency, this experimental short film asks questions of growth, progress, inevitability and time, and charts our earthly relationship with water.  

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Earth is a water world, and what is life (as we know it) without water? In the film, water is represented as something that we come to control, and ultimately isolate ourselves from. Meanwhile, the cycles of life that we are all born into mimic the cycles of the moon and tides - which are the source of a great deal of life, possibly even of life itself. 

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The film features an original brass diving helmet, a nod to the retro-futuristic visuals of early Afrofuturism. The helmet was kindly loaned by the Trustees of the Whitstable Museum. 

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This work was made possible by the support of CRATE Studio and Project Space and Arts Council Funding, in partnership with Durham Art Gallery, Ontario.