As the crow flies

This work explores some of the complexities of the historic relationship between England and India. The 3 video loops use material shot on location in India and fragments from archival letters, painting and epic Indian film to reflect the intertwining of histories and some of the complexities of Empire. The optical qualities of black glass mirrors suggest the elusive nature of memory and the intangibility of the recorded past. The videos are based on the experiences of boys from Ragged schools, apprenticed to the Indian Navy by the East India Company; the symbolic resistance of the Rani of Jhansi, Lakshmi Bai, who fought against the British during the Indian uprising, dying in June 1858 at the age of 23 and the fate of the young English women travelling to India in the 18th and 19th century, dying of heat and childbirth, who are buried outside the Cathedral in Bombay.