Sophie Huckfield

Factories leaving the workers, video preview, 2022

Drawing on materials from BMAG’s digital archives, the TURC archives at Vivid Projects and found footage of demolitions in the Midlands, the video work explores the legacies of privatisation, environmentalism, migrant labour and Trade Unionism in the West Midlands and wider UK. The work is rooted in the concept of 'Ruins in Reverse', working with this method as a way to explore how the legacies of hyper capitalism and privatisation from the 1970’s continue to impact upon us today and in the future.

Sophie Huckfield 2022.

You can focus. You can feel a desire to know more. You can feel suspense. You can socialise without exertion. You can empathise without the responsibility to make someone feel better. You can be still. You can be warm. You can be comfortable. You can lay your head down on a pillow and face towards it. You can fall asleep to it. You can rewatch. You can develop relationships with people you don’t know. You can feel disembodied. You can feel un aware of time passing. You can feel you are at leisure. You can feel it is downtime. You can feel you are in control. You can feel you deserve it. You can feel guilty. You can watch it with other people. You can criticise what’s going on. You can start your own commentary. You can express yourself. You can interrupt. You can eat. You can feel in your place. You can feel belonging. You can sit with others. You can do the same thing again. You can do it together. You can be close to the kitchen. You can be close to the bathroom. You can be close to the bedroom. You can fill the room with noise. You can distract yourself. You can distract others. You can move through feelings. You can cry. You can look out of the window. You can do some knitting. You can do more than just watching tv. You can layer activities. You can layer soundscapes. You can become obsessed. You can spend all day doing it. You can do it when you’re ill. You can do it when your well.