A dip into the archive: Rosemary Lee’s Infanta

We asked Rosemary Lee to look back through our archive and pick a few of her pieces that might resonate in some way with the current situation. So far we have shared boy and this week we are sharing Infanta.

Infanta was made with Peter Anderson in 1998. Like boy, the music was created for the film by Graeme Miller, who is a tenant at Toynbee Studios and with whom Artsadmin has worked for many years.

Infanta is a magical vision of the secret life and imagination of an eight year old girl. Set in a formal but neglected garden, the girl dances with compelling assurance as she leads the camera deeper into the garden and her own perceptions. Her affinity with her surroundings draws us into her world with an enthralling intimacy that has become a signature of Lee and Anderson’s films. Infanta was made as a companion piece to their earlier film boy.

Watch Rosemary introduce Infanta on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

We asked Rosemary Lee to look back through our archive and pick a few of her pieces that might resonate in some way with the current situation. So far we have shared boy and this week we are sharing Infanta. Here Rosemary introduces the film from her home. You can watch the five-minute film, via the link in our bio ✨ – TRANSCRIPT: Hi I’m Rosemary Lee. I made Infanta with Peter Anderson in 1998. I was really fascinated by Velázquez’s painting of Infanta, where she’s surrounded by servants and entertainers, but she looks forward and out towards us with an uncanny directness. She’s trapped by her canvas, I guess, and by her destiny and her circumstances, but that gaze is singularly resolute and defiant. It’s as is if her imagination can transport her away from her circumstances. I’ve been thinking a lot about imagination recently and that resonates with me because that’s perhaps what we’re all doing, using our imagination to take us far from the circumstances we are having to face.

A post shared by Artsadmin (@artsadm) on May 26, 2020 at 4:49am PDT

Watch Infanta

Credits

Commissioned by BBC2/ACE Dance on Camera series for Dance Night
Produced by MJW Productions, Anne Beresford and Margaret William
Broadcast December 1998

Directed by Rosemary Lee and Peter Anderson
Soundtrack by Graeme Miller
Performed by Eleanor Horton-Chandler
Costume by Louise Belson

Images: Eleanor Horton-Chandler in Infanta