Sheepspace

Sheepspace is a ‘live film’ by SUE-C and Laetitia Sonami, inspired by Haruki Murakami’s two novels Dance, Dance, Dance and A Wild Sheep Chase.

The film is about someone who lives in the folds of shadows; they act like a switchboard, making connections between dreams and reality.

SUE-C and Laetitia sat on the floor in the middle of the studio, working out of their suitcase-sized animation booth, packed with cutouts, film strips, flashlights and motors. The two artists worked in silence, side by side. SUE-C manipulated the items under the lights while Laetitia created the music on her electronic setup. The pair looked like a couple of child gypsies; sitting on the floor, wearing silly-looking sheep hats, with a bunch of random-looking toys and gizmos. The performance, however, was rather sophisticated.

I found the projected visuals combined with the live music to be extremely entrancing, even haunting. In some instances, I could really sense the blurring between the dream world and reality. There was one part that I really connected with on a deep level; a spinning fan of colours was whirling around and every so often there would be a flash and a glimpse of live action footage such as a view from a window on a train, all the while some fantastic music evoked feelings of nostalgia. I was totally transfixed, it was a dream.