Event: TerraForma – film and discussion
Adrian Clark heads to Exeter Custom House for a film and discussion event
For over 300 years, Exeter Custom House was a place for the weighing, measuring, and assessing of goods and materials from across the globe. Tonight, the venue is hosting a screening of the artist documentary TerraForma, as part of their Art Work Exeter’s ‘Pile Up! Worlds of Stuff’ exhibition. The exhibition – featuring new work by artists Louise Ashcroft & Farmer Glitch, and Freya Gabie – explores human interactions with materials, the value of waste and the challenges faced from the accumulation of waste in different forms and its relationship to anthropogenic climate change.
It is clear to see why the creative team involved have chosen this film, as there are clear synergies between it and the exhibition. The film studies approaches used by Victorian naturalists exploring the devastating but revolutionary 19th century geo-engineering project that radically altered the climate and ecology of Ascension Island. TerraForma is the story of this remote volcanic island, which sat smouldering for a million years devoid of life, until its sweeping transformation by a process of 'terraforming' into what it is today. The film is superbly made by Kevin Brennan and Laurence Durkin, close friends and a long-time filmmaking duo whose work together explores themes of identity, landscape, and human relationships with the natural world. It is hard to believe this is their first feature as it is an incredibly slick production with its sometimes-sinister shots of barren landscapes and abandoned vehicles, bringing an eerie feel to the piece. The emphasis is on the sound and visuals, which are quite rightly front and centre in the film, although there are welcome contributions from experts in different fields from politics to ecology to guide you through the film.
During the film, I was reminded of the famous ‘if you build it’ line from the movie Field of Dreams when listening to the simple idea of how scientists believed that if they planted trees, the trees would see the clouds in an effort to persuade it to rain and force the changes they wanted. Today, Ascension Island has one of the largest synthetic forests on the planet with its mismatched flora and fauna, so it had a considerable impact. At just over one hour long, the film was concise; however, in that time, a number of different themes are incorporated, from looking at how Ascension Island could be used to help scientists learn more about Mars to reflecting on whether the experiment has done more harm than good for the island. Because of the thought-provoking nature of the film, it generated many questions among the audience who enjoyed a lively but considered conversation after the film had finished to discuss subjects raised and what lessons we can learn. A prominent question concerned the ethics of the experiment: as mentioned in the film, there are many plants that typically don’t belong together in nature but which are growing side by side on the island… Should we ever tamper with nature on this scale?
The film is vague regarding the island’s habitability and even though we are teased with various scenes depicting people seemingly living on the island, the context remains mysterious, leaving the question unresolved. A standout moment for me captured footage of someone on the island playing a computer game in which they were creating their own virtual piece of land which added a particularly striking piece of ironic contrast to the film.
The screening of TerraForma was part of the ‘Pile Up! Worlds of Stuff’ exhibition, which runs until 29th June at Exeter Custom House and is part of Art Work Exeter’s residency programme.