Primordial (2017) documents and responds to a specific site – Cleveland Pools (Bath, SW England) to explore the entanglements between humans and more-than-humans. A slowed down section of the dawn chorus sequenced to the footage of the young boy is strategically intended to disrupt dominant notions of ‘nature’ and dominant depictions of the relationship between humans and nature.
It aims to neutralise the alleged species hierarchy and embody the notion that we should strive for an equivalent relationship to the more-than-human. This intention is underscored by footage of the young boy dodging fecund islands of pondweed as he plays ball with his (just off-screen) mother. The young boy is the centre of attention, and continually demands, through his actions, to remain so. The young boy is emblematic of an Enlightenment entitlement; to attention, to resources, to the dominance of his discourse. He is the white, Western male Enlightenment subject unaware that the discourse is no longer all about him.
Laura Denning 