Teacher and artist in Barnaby film
ARTIST Bedwyr Williams will explore yoga in Macclesfield for latest Barnaby Festival commission.
The film Flexure will see Bedwyr exploring yoga with local teacher Andrew Wrenn.
Commissioned for Macclesfield’s Barnaby Festival 2016, the film is about a technologically challenged hypnotist, who becomes hooked on his own self-hypnosis tapes and enters another time and space, a place of familiar Macclesfield landmarks and a local yoga teacher.
Jodrell Bank Observatory was one of the influential reasons that Barnaby Festival, located in the town, chose its 2016 theme of space.
Caernarfon-based Mr Williams has explored the theme before, with his installation Starry Messenger, which premiered at the 2013 Venice Biennale and explores a fascination with astronomers – in particular the amateur.
He said: “I didn’t want to make a sequel to The Starry Messenger.
“I wanted to explore inner space. We are living in an age of mindfulness and anxiety and it seemed appropriate to explore that. I came about it through the idea of a hypnotherapist and the video will be like watching a hypnotherapy video.”
He added: “The hypnotherapist receives complaints from his clients that the sound quality of his cassettes isn’t good.
“He starts to improve this through computer equipment and in the process he gets a bit hooked on them.
“His work is interrupted by a nuisance neighbour, who shouts crazy things at him like ‘cream cracker’ which he hears as it travels down their shared chimney.
“The hypnotist takes on the form of another character and becomes extra supple – almost like an instant yogi.”
Bedwyr accepted the commission for Barnaby Festival as he enjoys exploring provincial towns.
He added: “I remember the Macc Lads from when I was a teenager, but I had never been here.
“It’s got the postindustrial feel of Manchester, but rural too.
“It’s kind of like Coronation Street meets Last of the Summer Wine.
“I was also attracted to Macclesfield because of the badge it had of being the least cultural place in the UK in 2004.
“I thought it would be great to make a piece of work here.”
Visit the festival website at website www.barnabyfestival.