Interview by Melanie Xulu
Edith Morris is an artist and filmmaker based between Cornwall, Cardiff and Bristol. Drawing on folklore and the mythological, she creates moving image, 3D installation and costume for music, live performance and film.
Earlier this year she directed, edited, animated, recorded sound, created the costumes and filmed her short film SÆKÝR, during an artist residency at Fish Factory in Iceland.
Where does your interest in mythology and folklore stem from?
I’ve always loved story, growing up in the Welsh hills and more recently based at the far end of Cornwall, I’m surrounded in ancient Celtic folklore. Stories of creatures from the otherworld, giants, cave dwellers, mine goblins, shape-shifting seals and demonic beaver crocodiles. When visiting a new place, I love to get chatting with the locals about their local legends – what should I be on the lookout for… or whats watching me?
If you could be any fantastical creature what would you be and why?
Some creatures have the ability to influence their victims in a favourable or unfavourable way, depending on how they treated. For instance, if you enter a Cornish mine and leave without offering up a pasty, a Cornish pixie may decide to cave the mine in on you. However if you leave the pastry gift, they will let you get on with your day and may even help you out – I do like the sound of a free pasty!
You directed, edited, animated, recorded sound, filmed, and created the costumes for SÆKÝR , how do you approach such a multi-disciplinary way of working?
To be honest, this is my first time making a film for myself – not for a client or a music artist – and I’ve really enjoyed working on all aspects of it, including the audio. I do love to work with a team and having ideas bounce around the room, but for this very short, one-woman film (and Annika, the actress extraordinaire, who plays all parts in the film), working basically on my own, made it manageable for all parts to have a coherent style without a single zoom call between departments!
Also I think it really helps that I started out with a vision of how I wanted it to look – I took a huge amount of visual inspiration from 70’s sci-fi and horror, crash zooms and landscapes from spaghetti westerns. George Meliés – the master of camera trickery – I played with stop edits, dissolves, double exposures and messed around with scale.
What were some pleasant surprises and some challenges you faced in the creation of SÆKÝR?
A pleasant surprise, the Super 8 footage came out okay! I had no idea if the camera was working or not, but I was content knowing that if it wasn’t, then it wasn’t meant to be – perhaps the hidden folk of Iceland would have opened up the back of the camera or something.
It was a nervy few weeks waiting for the footage to develop, but when it came back, to see the two months of my time in Iceland play out in a two minute reel was such a huge payoff.
A challenge – the fish factory is located in the rural eastern fjords of Iceland, we had one of the worst snowstorms and coldest temperatures since 1948. Snow was up to the windows and we dug routes between buildings. I would have loved to film the creatures in the snow for the film, but it was actually just too extreme to be outside during that time. We ended up having to move out of our house due to flash flooding and an avalanche risk.
Tell me more about your residency at the Fish Factory in Iceland, what was that experience like?
I really enjoyed my time in the east fjords, it is a very remote place to spend two months. The residency itself is completely self directed, you can create as little or as much as you’d like… a perfect opportunity to hunker down and develop your practice. It was an old fish factory, now converted and sectioned into workshops and studios. It’s a really great way to meet artists from all over world who all share the same wish to be surrounded by nothing but mountains and water – I’ve made some pals for life!
How important is landscape and location to you and how does it influence your work?
I’ve always been drawn to cold, extreme nordic climates and landscapes – places where surviving and existing has been hard are often bursting with mythology and local legends. I think survival and rumour have played a huge role in our need for story throughout history. I wonder if we still have the same need for folklore in our world of street lamps, packaged veg and the NHS?
What are your creative patterns, routines or rituals?
Music is always first – even if the project’s music hasn’t been written yet, I start by looking for the right tone and sound for the project and make a playlist. That combined with an early morning walk and a cup of coffee, seems to spur on the ideas.
For this project I started with the soundtrack of ‘Children of the stones’ by Sidney Sager and The Ambrosian Singers. It’s a British children’s TV show from the 70s about the magic forces surrounding the ancient standing stones circle at Avebury. I highly recommend a watch and a listen if you’re into standing stones!
Lastly, do you have any must-see film recommendations for our readers?
I think l’ll mention ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ made by Australian director Peter Weir and a film I probably watched a little bit too young – its heavy synths, odd pan pipes and upturned angular shots of rock faces will always stay with me. A 70s folk horror about a group of school girls that go missing after a picnic in the bush… a magnetic force surrounds hanging rock and its all very bizarre!
MOOF 
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