Winters Gold

Tess Radcliffe

“The sunrise at dawn, the movement of trees, and birds in flight during the first lockdown provided enormous inspiration and opportunity for me to create new, digital work. I wanted to take part in It Gets Lighter From Here with Severn Arts, as I think my work resonates with the theme, and because light provides a symbol of hope and wisdom across so many different cultures especially during times of struggle and in the dark days of winter. ”

Tess's proposal

Winters Gold is a digital film exploring landscape and festive symbolism in the broadest and most inclusive sense.  Images of the glowing sunrise at dawn, the golden hues of the autumn and winter landscape, the graceful movement of trees swaying and dancing in the wintry winds, birds in flight and the dance of light and shadow across the land are brought together to create a flowing, animated montage.  Moving and still images are combined, layered, fragmented, and abstracted to create a dreamy play of colour and form, set to music, and saturated with glowing light effects and hypnotic rhythms.

About the artist

The digital work Tess creates is a fusion of landscape (in its broadest form) with the visual culture and musical production techniques of electronic dance music.  Movement, changing qualities of light, and sound, are key aspects of Tess's digital films and animations, which combine to evoke a sense of reverie and feelings of joy observing both the quiet beauty of nature and its surreal qualities. The layers of editing, fragmentation and repetition accentuate the dream-like quality.  Tess changes her approach to using sound and music according to the film; some are silent, others emphasise the sound recorded in the background environment during filming, and others are played to music.