McLeavey Gallery is hosting screenings of Johanna Mechen's short film, Last Skye Boat Song.
Last Skye Boat Song was produced by Johanna as part of her PhD, Last Skye Boat Song: The Essay Film in a Maternal Landscape: Transitional Phenomena in Photographic Practice in Aotearoa.
Artist Statement
Filmed over a four year period, beginning six months prior to the Covid-19 pandemic closing borders in Aotearoa, Last Skye Boat Song navigates an autotheoretical and emotional response to the liminal space of mothering teenagers in an uncertain social climate. The 24 min essay film enlists the performances by Mechen’s children, enacted between three geographical locations in the artists suburb of Lower Hutt Valley. Recurring motifs allude to climate change, the housing crisis, and the plasticised world. At the films’ heart are repetitious, cyclical and transitional observations made while navigating two parallel journeys. One into middle-age away from fertility and one during an initial and formative transgender transition.
Last Skye Boat Song will be screening at McLeavey Gallery over two days, Friday 21 and Saturday 22 June.
The planned screening times are as follows:
Friday 21 June: 3pm, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm
Saturday 22 June: 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm
The film runs for 24 minutes. All are welcome.
For more information, please contact the gallery