Commissions

Artists Moving Image Commission:

Alice Clough – I would crawl into a horse’s left ear

Inspired by ancient myths and using traditional folk tales as a starting point, Alice’s film explores the space between fact and fiction. It will focus on horse-human relationships to ask what the nonhuman can teach us about kinship and care.

Alice is a research-led artist with a background in archaeology and anthropology.

Tabatha Andrews – The Gifts

The Gifts is a socially-engaged, multisensory sculpture made for and with learning-disabled and neurodiverse communities of Exeter to form a lasting community legacy. It is commissioned by Exeter Phoenix as part of her wider, Arts Council funded project, The Slightest Gesture, a sculpture, dance and film project, which will unfold throughout 2024/25.

Green Phoenix Visual Arts Commission – Adam Garratt

Working mainly in sculpture and print, Adam is a queer working class artist whose practice has evolved around constraints of space, the use of material and repetitious making processes. Much of his work is made on reclaimed materials from building sites and is specifically made to expand into an installation when it is not neatly folded, stacked and rolled for storage in the garden shed. Conscious not to make extra waste, Adam chooses carefully which materials to make work with. They come with their own history of use and bare the marks of an embodied labour, often with holes, creases, tears, dirt and stains.

Xenia Glen & Antosh Wojcik: Memory Boom

A film by filmmaking duo (and co-founders of Dorset-based production company Sleepwalker), exploring the preserving of memories in the modern era.

Holly Ebony

A new song cycle by singer/songwriter Holly Ebony reflecting on themes around family, social change, travel, colonialism and relationship to place arising from the footage.

Devon Short Film Commission:

Micha Colombo – Abigail’s an activist now (working title)

A female-led comedy exploring what happens when unassuming Abigail decides to become a climate change activist on her way home from work.

Micha is an actor and writer working in theatre, film, poetry and storytelling.

South West Short Film Commission:

Lydia Jenkins – Fishwife

Set in the 13th century, Fishwife focuses on Maggie, a young woman, dressed as a shrimp and left on the sea shore as a sacrifice to a sea monster. The film aims to reflect on systematic violence against women as well as contemporary gender roles and expectations.

Lydia is a writer-director based in Cornwall whose practice focuses on female experiences, using colourful analogies to address social and gender issues.

19-25 Devon Film Fund Commission:

Sapphire Medeema – Dogs and fireworks

Selected from the 19-25 Devon Film Fund Live Pitch at Two Short Nights 2024, Dogs and fireworks follows a neurodivergent teenager and her older brother as they discover they have surprisingly different memories of the same family events.

Sapphire is an emerging artist and filmmaker making their first narrative short film having made more experimental work to date.

Micro Short Film Commissions:

Natasha Lay – lippie

A snapshot of a moment between two friends in the girls’ bathroom on a night out during Freshers Week.

Natasha is a Devon-based theatre maker and screenwriter originally from Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand.

Micro Short Film Commissions:

Emma Johnson – Other

A short stop motion animation film about a Deaf boy called Oliver that celebrates community and promotes an inclusive society.

Emma is an aspiring filmmaker currently in her final year at Falmouth University studying for her Illustration Masters Degree.

Green Phoenix Performance Commission

The Hedgesong Collective

For the commission, Maz McNamara and Emily Unsworth-White will create an interdisciplinary performance exploring our folkloric relationship with trees and plants of the British Isles. They will bring together rich harmony singing and instrumental music, poetic storytelling, and the use of a crankie theatre – a traditional form of visual storytelling using a scroll wound between two spools. The show will be a captivating 30-minute mythic journey through the seasons, providing a gentle opportunity for an audience of all ages to connect with the more-than-human world.