Orchard Portraits is a seven-screen video installation created by Rosemary Lee and Roswitha Chesher.
Filmed through the four seasons of a year, Orchard Portraits is inspired by, and shot in, a historic wild orchard at West Horsley Place in Surrey. Five senior performers are each captured in a meditative and elegant duet with an ageing tree whilst in contrast 60 school children burst through the orchard in moments of joy and discovery. Reminding us of natures’ cycles of regeneration, Orchard Portraits conjures up a sense of our deep and ancient connection with trees. Bringing the beauty of the outside in, the resulting seven-screen video installation can be presented in galleries and other indoor spaces.
“Working alongside these aged trees – left to go wild – finding gestures and ways to lean into and rest against the tree, I have noticed how quickly a quiet, connection and familiarity forms between human and tree. I’d like to highlight this relationship and thereby honour both older tree and older human.”
Rosemary Lee
For more information on this project contact Nicky Childs at nicky@artsadmin.co.uk.
Performers: Nancy Budd, Violet Clare, Andrew Hamel-Cooke, Jim Tucker, Helen Scalway and pupils from The Raleigh School, West Horsley, Surrey.
Original concept and Choreography: Rosemary Lee
Director of Photography: Roswitha Chesher
Editing: Roswitha Chesher with Rosemary Lee
Sound Design: Douglas Murray
Costumes: Susan Dinmore
Production Manager: Steve Wald
Synchronised Playback System: Rob Prouse
Installation Construction: Richard Rudnicki
Produced by Ali Clarke at Surrey Hills Arts with Nicky Childs at Artsadmin
Orchard Portraits is supported by Arts Council England, Arts Partnership Surrey and the Surrey Hills National Landscape.
Special thanks to Matt Link, Clare Clinton and the team at West Horsley Place, Katie Green, Julie Gilbert, Jan Alderman, Douglas Murray.
| Date | Title | Venue | City |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 November 2023 | Films by Rosemary Lee | Dance Limerick Performance Space (St. John's church) | Light Moves Festival, Limerick |
| 9 November 2023 – 28 January 2024 | Orchard Portraits | Limerick City Gallery of Art | Light Moves Festival, Limerick |
| 29 July – 2 November 2023 | Orchard Portraits | West Horsley Place | Surrey |
| 8 June 2023 | Rosemary Lee – Moving Worlds – Dance on Film | Queen Mary University London |
