Utterance - Helen Mort (poem) and James Lockey (film)

Описание: Utterance was commissioned to capture the experience of the Covid crisis through the voices of South Yorkshire's cared for elderly and their carers. The project invited people in care to write letters to poet, Helen Mort, which she then curated verbatim into a poem, to which video artist, James Lockey, created the final work.
The project was commissioned and co-ordinated in a partnership between WE Great Place, Barnsley Museums and Right Up Our Street, Doncaster and was funded by Off the Shelf and Arts Council England.

"Working on the ‘Utterance’ project changed my sense of what art can do for us in crisis, where artists should direct their energy. Along with filmmaker James and supported by Sally, Dominic, Michele, Gaby, I spent months finding out about what life has been like this year for the elderly and for those in care homes, the vulnerable members of our society who have been spoken about frequently since March but who have seldom spoken themselves, still less been heard. We asked them what has kept them going, what they would change, where they would go to if they could, what they would say to those in power. The answers surprised me. Their eloquence humbled me. I ran writing workshops in Doncaster where staff and elderly service users from Age UK described the autumns of their childhood, the people and places that defined their lives. I read letters from volunteers and care home residents who were angry, defeated, grateful, stoical. I tried to suppress the sense of injustice I felt on their behalf and focus on their words instead. I stitched them together into this poem, where all the images and ideas come from elsewhere: all I did was arrange them. ‘Utterance’ was curated by me and James, but it was written by the poets of South Yorkshire who spoke to us, lent us their words. Being a writer has felt like a precarious prospect this year, but if I’m able to take part in projects like this, then it’s still what I want to do with my time on earth."
Helen Mort, 2 November 2020