Deep in The Eye and The Belly (2023, ongoing)
multi-chapter film series, text, sculpture
In the present day, a story is unearthed of a whale body that became a world of dinner parties, clandestine sex and mayoral speeches. In a possible future, a group of those-who-were-left-behind (or, those-who-chose-to-stay) have made a home inside the body of a whale. They find themselves contemplating this new world and speculating on the state of things outside – a world ravaged by a climate crisis which they survived by turning to the ocean. At a crossing between the present day and this potential future, a lone figure sings a lament for the body of the world’s last whale.
Deep in The Eye and The Belly (Chapter 1) 3 minute extract
Deep in The Eye and The Belly is a new body of work entwining stories of cetacean bodies with imagined oceanic futures in which these bodies become shelter for humans who returned to the oceans in the wake of climate collapse.
In Chapter One an unseen storyteller recounts the real-life tale of a young blue whale who beached on rocks not far from the city of Gothenburg in 1865. After being violently killed, the whale’s carcass was purchased and preserved by taxidermist August Wilhelm Malm for a dramatic museological display that saw it mounted with its jaw agape, allowing access inside the decorated body. Sometime in the 1930s a couple was found having sex inside the creature, and from then on, the museum decided to only open them up on special occasions, including mayoral speeches and elaborate meals for the wealthy.
The voice recalls a conversation that takes place in an unmarked facility full of cetacean bodies in various stages of preservation and assembly, an inflated stomach is taken from a cupboard, a time capsule of ear wax and the bones of the Thames whale sit in a display case. From these museum artefacts, the film threads together other cetacean-body stories: a spa in which people find cures in the bodies of dead whales, the whale who became a stranded spectacle in the Thames, and the travelling carcasses of a trio of whales the whereabouts of which are now unknown.
Deep in The Eye and The Belly (Chapter 1), exhibition documentation, San Mei Gallery, London 2023
Deep in The Eye and The Belly (Chapter 1) Film Stills
Deep in The Eye and The Belly (Chapter 1) Film Still
Our narrator appears on screen in Chapter Two in an extensive, theatrical monologue, where they recount the tale of climate collapse that led them and others to seek shelter and survival in collaboration with their cetacean kin.
Deep in The Eye and The Belly (Chapter 2) 3 minute extract
Deep in The Eye and The Belly (Chapter 1) Film Still
Chapter Three leaves us on a watery crossing at an unknown time. Atop a bold red lighthouse, a lone singer laments for the disappearance of the world’s last whale.
Deep in The Eye and The Belly (Chapter 3) Film stills
Chapters Four and Five are currently in production (Summer 2023).
Words held in waxy time (2023, beeswax)
The Inscrutable House, A Response to Deep in The Eye and The Belly by Andy Grace Hayes
Chapter 1
Written and directed by Sam Williams
Editing, post-production and secondary camera by Sam Williams Camera by Paul Bates (London) and Marte Vold (Gothenburg)
Voiced by Nando Messias Dramaturgy support by Laura Lomas Music by Simon Fisher Turner
Sound recording by Jordan Hunt Sound mastering by Harry Murdoch Animation by Andrew Gooch at Studio Ultra Title design by Erland Banggren Archive footage courtesy of British Pathé
Special thanks to: Richard Sabin, Principal Curator (Mammals) at Natural History Museum, London Magnus Gelang, Senior Curator (Vertebrates); Kennet Lundin, Senior Curator (Marine Invertebrates) and Åsa Holmberg at Gothenburg Museum of Natural History
Additional thanks: Henrik & Eva Bäcklund
Chapter 2
Written and directed by Sam Williams
Performed by Nando Messias Editing, sound design and post-production by Sam Williams Camera by Alexandra Boanta Produced by Priya Palak Music by Simon Fisher Turner
Costume by Max Allen Set and props by Jonathan van Beek Make up by Anete Salinieka Hair by Aimeric Amiot Filmed at The Hornecker Centre, London with special thanks to Tony Hornecker Dramaturgy support by Laura Lomas Title Design by Erland Banggren
The line "We questioned the end point of evolution when we realised it wasn't us" is a direct quote from Alexis Pauline Gumbs "M Archive: After The End of The World" The monologue contains additional references to texts by José Esteban Muñoz, Jenny Offil and Alexis Pauline Gumbs.
Chapter 3
Directed by Sam Williams
Editing, sound design and post-production by Sam Williams Camera by Alexandra Boanta Produced by Priya Palak Performed by Nando Messias Costume by Max Allen Music by Jordan Hunt
The song contains a repeated set of lyrics from Pete Seeger "The Song of the World's Last Whale"
Deep in The Eye and The Belly is funded with support from Arts Council England and Artist Network Development Bursary with thanks to Laura Sweeney, Ruth Lie, Priya Palak, Jade Montserrat & Somerset House Studios
Deep in The Eye and The Belly (Chapter 1) Film Still