Marnie Weber - A Western Song, 2007

A Western Song (Weber, 2007) is a coming-of-age allegory that explores themes relating to the vulnerability that can often arise as we pass from youth into adulthood. Inexperienced but eager to try new things and find our place in the world, Weber’s film presents the world of The Spirit Girls, an all-girl rock band who were killed in a tour bus accident (Gavin, 2008), and the dangers they still face as teenage girls in their spirit world.

Although the themes of the film are of great interest to me and relevant to my own lived experiences, the references I’ve taken in the instance of my degree show work are far lighter, with the most obvious perhaps being the choice of costume and wig for my ‘Woman in the Woods’ figure, herself a ghostly apparition that appears to be of another world herself. However, while The Spirit Girls themselves are colourful and wear white, expressionless masks, I chose to use a monochromatic palette and use a wide-brimmed bolero hat to bathe the Woman in the Woods’ face in shadow. The reasons for these decisions are both aesthetic and symbolic: my Woman is older, angrier, and vengeful, mourning her stolen youth and filled with grief and rage. The colour and joy drained, hers is now a world of black and white, where she is consumed by the trauma that made her.