‘The Last Dance Of The Flowers’
Sitting down to write this today is a completely different feeling compared to my last few entries, and to be honest it feels like a happy relief.
My head is full of laughter as I look back at this absolutely chaotic shoot; it was carnage from start to finish and we all worked so damn hard. For once, there are no heavy emotions for me, no underlying sadness. I have loved every part of this picture’s creation from concept to shoot – and even the editing. It has felt like a page from my childhood slowly filling with colour, growing under my fingertips as the days have passed and I let go of it today with nothing but joy inside.
It has become a huge favourite of mine and I intend to have the full two-metre-high print on the wall of my own home. Each time I look at it I long to be there again, standing beside Katie in the warm shadows, remembering Elbie’s laughter echoing around us. The wonder of creating these scenes is that I will always be able to connect back to that day with all my senses because we were there and we created that moment together. I know how the earth smelt, I can remember my hands feeling dirty and sticky with the sap from the flowers, and the rush of adrenaline as we raced against the low sun to get the shot before it was too dark.
In the previous scene, ‘The Stars Of Spring Will Carry You Home’, we watched as Katie said her silent goodbye, a last look back at us and all that Wonderland has become. It was her acknowledgement that nature had always been her guardian and was a consistent metaphor for my mother. Katie’s fusion with the flowers depicted this acceptance and the trust she placed in the path she would be led along during her final days. Throughout the series I always used trails in my work to demonstrate journey and movement through a static image – like the yellow leaves in ‘The Journey Home’ or the powdered colour on snow in ‘Spirited Away’. Here I hoped to take that a step further by making the flowers physically lift Katie’s form, raising her up in a surge of colour that would carry her through the forest to the hidden place that had waited patiently for her arrival. At night I dreamt of the flowers coming to life in this last maternal gesture of protection. Inside my own body I could feel my spirits rise with her, a sense of completion on the horizon for both of us as Katie’s journey parallels mine in the real world. I am so close now, just two pictures away from the end. In the mornings I can feel a change inside; I walk to the studio in a different way, I look up again, I feel lighter, I breathe more slowly, I whisper to myself with each step: ‘Almost there; almost there; almost there…’
(original phone snap of me on location)
The whole concept for ‘The Last Dance of the Flowers’ started in June 2013 with one little camera phone picture taken by my husband Matt. I had spent a week location-scouting for Rhododendrons – the buds were on the trees and would bloom any day now. I needed a private place where we would be left alone and out of sight from the public in order to build our floral ‘wave’. I spent my time walking and taking pictures; I found some beautiful areas but nothing that felt dramatically different to others already used in the series. It was only on the afternoon of the fourth day, when I was standing in a path of bright light that Matt happened to take a snap of me on his phone. Later that night, as I was complaining that I felt disheartened and uninspired with my research, Matt passed me the picture on his phone and suddenly everything changed. The irony of seeing myself standing with my back to the most amazing natural vignette of twisted storybook trees, completely unaware of them, was almost laughable! I instantly knew that this was the location and I even stayed completely faithful to the original framing of the phone picture on the day, not once moving my camera position throughout the entire shoot.
The following morning I began work on the wig. I have never made anything like it before and still can’t quite believe it actually worked. It was incredibly difficult to wear and was a baptism of fire for Elbie trying to attach it to poor Katie’s head. We ran several trials of the wig in my studio and then just prayed it would survive on location. Due to the fact that the final scenes were shot in reverse, the wig would later be covered in flowers, and we mastered wiring it to trees for support. But this was the first time Katie had had to cope with its challenges and her only option was to balance it as best she could.
The day of the shoot was absolutely relentless; all Wonderland shoots are exhausting, there has never been a ‘quick’ one and there is always the threat of terrible English weather. I never sleep the night before and if you read this diary regularly you’ll also know I worry for days in advance. However, this shoot really went to a new level of panic because it relied on cutting over 1,000 fresh wild flowers and building a huge construction with them on the very same day as taking the picture! I’ll be blunt: I had no idea how long it would take, no idea if it would work, no idea what I was doing, or whether we would actually be able to collect enough flowers – but the image was so clear in my mind that we just threw ourselves into things regardless!
The day began early in the morning with just Elbie, Saskia and me. We went to the woods armed with bags, scissors, gardening gloves and old clothes, and cut flowers non-stop for four hours. It was exhausting and ridiculous, we quickly became filthy with mud and sap, our hands were cut to ribbons, arms scratched and worst of all we were attacked by mosquitos at every turn. We scrambled up trees and muddy banks, groaning, swearing, laughing, it was hard graft, but it is often this physical part of the photos that is something I relish and love. The child in me delights at the dirt and the wind on my face, especially when there is the promise of something magical at the end of it all. So we worked tirelessly, stashing our hoard in the shade of the trees and returning to the studio to collect the costume, equipment and Katie.
Building the floral ‘wave’ from fresh flowers
By two that afternoon we were back on site and work began on creating the floral ‘wave’. The location was set in the heart of the trees and the warmth and shade there made for a breeding ground for hungry mosquitos. I cannot describe how many there were, but their effect was unbelievable. We coated ourselves in insect repellent but they just kept coming, which is why – as well as our horrible old clothes – we had to wear ridiculous hats to stop us from being bitten on the face and in our hair. I can’t stop laughing looking at the behind- the-scenes pictures because I can remember so clearly the names we were calling each other, not to mention the hysterics we were in after seeing Katie in the full coat and wig for the first time. It was a moment of utter, utter delight. The wig was extraordinary and once it was balanced and Katie was able to walk around, my confidence returned and everything felt possible.
It took further three-and-a-half hours to build the set and eventually get Katie into position ready for the early evening light. Over the previous week I had returned to the site several times to check the position of the sun so we knew exactly where and when it would hit the set. By six-thirty we were ready and once again I was shaking I was so tired and excited. We shot two types of picture, one with smoke and one without. I’m sad to say that Richard our filmmaker was unable to join us that day, so we attempted to shoot some video ourselves as a record, which was of an appalling quality and hugely underexposed. However, it is hysterically funny to watch, especially as you hear me shouting orders at my poor husband Matt, who desperately runs all over the set with the smoke canons, witnessed with amusement by Elbie, who squeals with laughter off-camera.
It was carnage, there is no point in denying it, but my goodness I love the final image so much. It has to be one of the most unbelievable pictures in the series. With the bounty of flowers and the gravity-defying hair; everyone’s reaction has been disbelief and that response is something I will always relish and try to achieve in my work.
The smoke test shot (in the end we decided against the smoke, but I still love this little behind the scenes shot)
I so look forward to your diary entries!! They always make my day.I love your Wonderland series-and I love that you share the details. I am so impressed by your creativity with your costumes and props.I think it’s amazing that you make it all yourself-and it makes your photos all the more impressive.Thank you for sharing this journey.I am looking forward to seeing it completed,but sad that it will have to end!!
Such a beautiful image! Thanks for sharing the process. I like smoke picture. Until I read the details, I felt that it was dawn and the fog was rising, preparing for the Dance.
Your inspirations always leave us speechless Kirsty! Congratulations! 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous, as is all your work! I love reading your blogs about the images, it makes me appreciate them on a whole new level. I would have had a hard time deciding between smoke/no smoke, but I agree that you picked the right image 🙂
stunningly brilliant. extraordinary. gorgeous. beautiful.
so enjoyed reading your diary about the whole creation…..you transported me there with you.
I want a coat of flowers 🙂 ♡