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“Stabbing the River”, which @pearliefrisch and I directed, will be screening as part of PLATEAUX 2026 Festival, organized by @riftassociation, on Friday, 22/05 at 4-11 pm at the former convent La Cômerie, 176 Rue Breteuil, 13006 Marseille. PLATEAUX 2026 will include performances, installations, screenings, workshops, and small press stands. Our film will be showing as part of a program of documentary and experimental films curated by @samanthasteel_e. A warm thank-you to Samantha for including us in her selection.

PLATEAUX 2026 is in partnership with @provence_art_contemporain’s Printemps de l’Art Contemporain, @opera_marseille, @actoral_, La Biennale d’Aix, @yes_we_camp, @p2n.community, and Office Survivre.

Film still: Célia Hay + Pearlie Frisch, “Stabbing the River”, 2019-2026, duration 2’27 min, Super 8 colour 4:3, original soundtrack by Sophie Oetinger (@sophie_lunera).

I just finished editing a new film-ritual shot last month with @worstie. This film is the final piece of a triptych on absence and filiation, begun last summer with the films “Arabesque for Dad” and “SŒUR (in absentia)”, which I will present this summer on various occasions to be announced.

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“SŒUR (in absentia)” (work in progress), duration 7:44 min, Super 8 colour 4:3, silent, starring Nichole Graf and Palo.

Thank you to all the friends and strangers who’ve signed up for my printed newsletter. Mailing it to Marseille, Belfast, Berlin, Brussels, New York, Quebec City, New Mexico, etc. felt like weaving a spiderweb, microscopic and infinite at once, of lingering friends. I am currently preparing the issue #2; please sign up for it if you’d like to receive it. I also have a few copies left of issue #1 I can slip with the new issue for those who missed it. Also don’t forget to update your address if you’ve moved!

Image: new headshot by my dear @helena_goni, taken on her old rooftop last September in New York.

Here’s a short excerpt of me performing my new film “SŒUR (in absentia)” during our group show at the CND Space last month.

The hexing-turned-protective-ritual for a sister was carried out by a creek where I fell in love years ago in New Mexico. The poem, written shortly after the ritual took place, was meant to reactivate this past gesture for the audience in a suspended moment, its pace imprinted through my breath.

Perhaps because all my work is quite personal, I naively did not anticipate how vulnerable it would feel to perform this film/poem in front of a room full of people and felt grateful for the encouragements I received and the people who said they were touched by it. I hope more occasions to perform poetry to my film screenings will arise in the near future.

Also, I love the people of my essay fiction writing seminar!

Video: Documentation of “SŒUR (in absentia),” film & poem, duration 7:44 min, Super 8 colour 4:3, starring @martinwgropper and Palo.

Here’s a brief excerpt of my most recent film, “SŒUR (in absentia)”, which will screen tomorrow as part of the show “(re)visions (re)readings” at the CND Space, 162 Holloway Road, N7 8DQ London, 6-9 pm, alongside the work of my peers from the Essay Fiction seminar of @csm_news.

I have a lot of gratitude for @martinwgropper for performing this ritual with me, but also for all the support leading up to it.

Film: “SŒUR (in absentia)” (work in progress), duration 7:44 min, Super 8 colour 4:3, silent, starring Nichole Graf and Palo.

I’m so sick of the dissolving effect of the digital on our lives I’ve decided to start a printed newsletter. This letter won’t be centered on announcing my upcoming exhibitions but rather the occasion to show bits of works in progress (film stills, poems, etc), share some thoughts, and the work of other artists I admire.
The letter will be infrequently printed on nice recycled paper and won’t be shared online. Whether you’re a friend or a stranger, please sign up if you wish to receive it by sending me your full name and postal address via DM or email at janesuzy.hay(at)gmail.com and I’ll ship it to you for free no matter how close or far we are from each other.

I’ll be showing a new film as part of the group show “(re)visions (re)readings” at the CND Space, 162 Holloway Road, London, on the 29/01 starting at 6 pm. This show will present screenings and readings of works by participants in the Essay Fiction doctoral seminar at Central Saint Martins.

On this occasion, I’ll be performing a poem alongside the screening of its accompanying short analog film-ritual: a protective gesture for an absent sister which was performed/filmed with my friend @martinwgropper last fall in New Mexico.

I’ve been creating Super 8 films in dialogue with poems for the past two years, increasingly shifting my work toward more difficult forms, and this will be the first occasion for me to give my voice to these films in front of a live audience. I am nervous and ecstatic at once, please do come!

With:
Maria Andrews
Crispin Day
Blanca García
Célia Hay
Bill Howard
Carmel Keren
Jenny Maxwell
Joshua Whitaker
Duncan White

Many thanks to Duncan White and @josh1whitaker for putting together this project!

I’m having a mini solo show in the Art School of Laval University (@art.ulaval), in Quebec City, opening today! « What will remain forgotten? » will be on view from December 29 to January 11.

On this occasion, I’ll be unveiling some photographs and poems from two new films, where human and non-human intertwine at the end of cycles, and brutality and death cohabit with tenderness.

Thanks to Guillaume Clermont for the invitation!

https://www.3152.info/

I’m having a mini solo show in the Art School of Laval University (@art.ulaval), in Quebec City, opening today! « What will remain forgotten? » will be on view from December 29 to January 11.

On this occasion, I’ll be unveiling some photographs and poems from two new films, where human and non-human intertwine at the end of cycles, and brutality and death cohabit with tenderness.

Thanks to Guillaume Clermont for the invitation!

https://www.3152.info/

I’m having a mini solo show in the Art School of Laval University (@art.ulaval), in Quebec City, opening today! « What will remain forgotten? » will be on view from December 29 to January 11.

On this occasion, I’ll be unveiling some photographs and poems from two new films, where human and non-human intertwine at the end of cycles, and brutality and death cohabit with tenderness.

Thanks to Guillaume Clermont for the invitation!

https://www.3152.info/

One more trip around the sun…
This has been the year of the most intense love and grief. All I hope is I’ve learned some things along the way and have been a good friend ~

This film still is from « The Crying Mountain (Reel #6), » camerawork by @happyapplespress and I.

I’m so happy that « Does Spring Hide Its Joy » has been selected for @cinesaloncork Experimental Film Festival! The festival will run on December 5th - 7th in Cork and Cobh, Ireland, and online on December 5th - 21th. This event of experimental film and poetry is curated by @maximilianlecain and @benjaminburnspopstar.

I directed this film to document Kali Malone (@hotscorpions)’s original sound installation at Birkenhead Docks for @abandon_normal_devices in 2021, featuring @stephenomalley74 and @lucyrailton.