Rhea Storr

Resist and Play, Turf Projects/ Fungus Press, 2019

Rhea Storr is an artist filmmaker who explores the representation of black and mixed-race cultures in various places, such as the location of her rural upbringing in a British Bahamian household. She also explores how the act of masquerading a stereotype or a subversion of that can become a powerful protest against inequality. 

Storr presented at the Artist Talks about her work in 16mm film, but through delving a little deeper I also found she has a section on 'Writing' on her website, where she has presented excerpts of her creative writing as another form of creative outlet. Some of the pieces seem more poetic, such as 'Show yourselves Recollections', and others, like 'A Body' fall somewhere in between that of a poem and a lyrical essay extract.

Even in her filmmaking, such as the exhibition of 'Turf and Play', text can be seen captioning the image, as if to fully enforce the message to an audience with a passionate intent. Storr's filmmaking doesn't seek to fit the mould: the bold colours and destructive nature of the film she uses is all in part an experimental flare to unearth the beauty of an over-commercialised art. 

Even in her creative writing on the website, something as simple as a string of sentences can be transformative. In 'A Body' she writes: 'I am taking on the texture of the plane that hit me... I am not malleable to this substance... but it had my skin and my semblance'. Although only a descriptive piece of fiction, the intensity and brutality with which Storr writes about her body connecting, fractionally, to 'this substance' of the plane as they momentarily take up the same space upon impact, is truly magnetic. It speaks volumes of the concept of how our bodies are altered by objects and the space around us, which in turn connects to Storr's concurrent themes of identity and culture taking on a vibrant and impactful persona. 

https://www.rheastorr.com/writing