Emily Orley​
She longs for parallel versions of herself
In April and May 2021, I took part in a 4 week online Artist residency organised by the Belgrade Art Studio. A group of 7 artists from across the globe gathered weekly online and experimented with creating work around the theme of 'Artist on Standby'. I made a series of audiovisual works that culminated with a 6 minute video entitled ‘She longs for parallel versions of herself’. A slow-moving diptych, it explores ideas to do with standing-by, in several senses: being full of readiness and expectation, and having to stay beside, not touching or acting. I wanted to play with the tension between the enforced stasis we have all been subject to under lockdown and the sense of longing it has evoked. I wanted to reflect the place I found myself in at that time (London) and the place I imagined being while on the residency (Belgrade). I set myself the constraint of focusing on one small but impossible gesture: that of opening the door to the Belgrade Art Studio from over 2,000 kilometres away. I used images (moving and still) and sounds recorded in and just outside my own home only. The slow map/leaf image was a way of experimenting with thinking about our nervous system (and sense of touch) as both a real and imagined place.
More work from the residency and an interview can be found here.