Loose on the Streets
Karen Browett
Super8 film, 2022
Shown in The Darkroom, D7 as part of Opening the Gates, PhotoIreland Festival, 2022
This film revolves around themes of re-integration after the recent extended periods of isolation during covid. The work looks at anxieties, desires, boundaries and social strangeness. Fascinated by the characteristics and mechanisms used by animals to signal warning and attraction I wondered how life would be if humans could adopt some of these aposematic behaviours, chameleonic changes and puffed up displays. Loose on the Streets playfully suggests a world where this behaviour exists.
The film was shot on Super8 and hand processed during an artist residency at The Darkroom. Through a multimedia approach, by creating off the wall characters, making wild costumes, homemade soundtracks, set design, Letraset title cards and more, this short film offers the viewer an invitation into a fully tactile new world.
Karen’s inspiration comes from the pure excitement of the process itself and the physical act of making, which is always accompanied by a heavy dose of noise, crackle, chaos, punk spirit and DIY.
