Alan Cunningham

Alan Cunningham

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Eight Views: First Variation
2025
Video (MiniDVD)
7"03'

Formal Experiment (MiniDVD Recorded); short film based on a sequence of poems that utilise the "Eight Views" theme and approach predominant in 11th Century Chinese (and latterly Japanese) poetry.


"Eight Views: First Variation" is based on the first variation on this "Eight Views" theme, written by the filmmaker, and quoted in full below:


Eights Views: First Variation


return home from a distant city – travel along a shore road


October mist hides a large wall


wild birds ascend from sheltered trees


a night fire is lit – smoke rises


the sound of a nearby stream


descent from mountain to a fishing village – it rains – an unfamiliar bell chimes


the Autumn moon glows


the sea rolls forward – a memory of a thousand boats.