2018 | Single channel video installation | 9:19 minutes
Filmed in Havana, Cuba, 'Words Fail' explores the landscape below a bridge in Havana, where a number of once homes to families have now been pulled down and have left a strong silhouette imprint on the wall of the bridge. The scene prompted me to ask the question, did the people have a say in what went on here? What were their words? This led me to the wonder and question what happened before the time l stood here filming. For this work, I organised an unfurling of fabrics from the top of the bridge. The gesture was intended to evoke many things - the ways in which people dry clothes, tongues rolling, party play whistles, empty banners or flags. Through this gesture l wanted to signal an obscure relationship between language and meaning, or gesture and signification. One might also say, that the work is a reflection on how language and actions can communicate very diverse signals, the unknown and perhaps on a much deeper and ambitious level to question the dynamics between actions and words.