THE RESOUNDING BELL
South London Gallery 22nd September - 18th November 2018
The Resounding Bell is a seven-part short film series and live performance by Rory Pilgrim, co-developed with a council of women aged 22 – 94, who live and work locally to Peckham and Camberwell, and a group of young women from Harris Girls Academy, East Dulwich.
The Resounding Bell explores how we might amplify otherwise unheard stories from the past that are in danger of being left silent for generations to come. With our lives dominated by digital communication, the intersecting episodes reflect on how we can come together from different generations to share stories, ask questions and listen in order to understand the past and move forward into the future.
The council, an intergenerational collective of seven women, met to explore and share stories of care, community, migration, technology and war; to ask questions of the past and to propose questions for the future. At the Fire Station, the group of young women responded to these narratives, in sessions which took on a rhythm of call and response. Broadcast online and in the Fire Station Studio, Pilgrim’s episodes ultimately prompt us to reconsider how we might resonate our past and futures within the urgency of the present.
The final episode, As Close to the Future As Possible, was a live broadcast from the Old Waiting Room at Peckham Rye Station on Sunday 21 October bringing all the women for the first time together.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFOUOrSpy4s&t=1214s)
The Resounding Bell was commissioned through the South London Gallery’s critical heritage programme, Evidence of Us.
With Special Thanks
COUNCIL
Celia (Sister) Thomas, Winnie Salisbury, Linda Allen, Lily Reddie, Marlen Cabezas, Louise Hart and Jana Dahlawi.
TEENAGERS
Faith Akinje, Lydia Campbell, Mariatu Conteh, Claire Davies-Mellor and Iara Rampon Rodriguez.
Chris Shaw (Colouring)
Daisy Mosley (Camera)
James Gunn (Camera)
James Early (Live Broadcast Camera)
The Wandle Ringers
Robyn Haddon
Peckham Station Old Waiting Room
Friends of the Old Waiting Room
Ben Messih
Davinia Robinson