Overlapping emotional undercurrents between an ancestor and an artist on the River Thames in Victorian England.
In 1872, whilst living beside the river Thames in Chelsea, London, James Abbott McNeill Whistler produced the atmospheric, tonal painting Nocturne in Blue and Gold, Old Battersea Bridge. Influenced by Japanese prints, his innovative work was totally misunderstood and even ridiculed in Victorian England. Sarah Tremlett's ancestor was a lighterman (bargeman), living at the same time, at Swan Wharf, Battersea, on the poor side of the river, and just a stone’s throw from this view. It is possible the man in the picture could be George, and he could even have ferried Whistler to ideal sites for painting. However, I also felt that there were hidden emotional currents in both their backgrounds that unknowingly made Whistler drawn to the lonely figure. The poem is written in neo-Symbolist mode, and the contemporary footage is from the same point of view as the painting. The soundscape by leading Belgian composer Marc Neys, though not inspired by Debussy, evolved from Tremlett’s fascination with his repetitive phrases, and his friendship with Whistler. This film is taken from TREE, a forthcoming family history chronicle by Sarah Tremlett.
This is the shorter, five-minute version of the film. There is also a seven-minute version with a longer poem.
This work also experiments with painting with film
BEST SOUND DESIGN Bracciano Film and Arts Festival, Italy, July 2025 for the extended version
REELpoetry, Houston, April, 2025
Absurdah Film Festival, v. 5 Sheerness, UK, August, 2025
Nomination Digital Graffix Film Awards, Montreal, Canada, 2025 (best sound)
The River Has No Colour project, curated by Lee Campbell, London, 2025. POW! In collaboration with Hypermedia, Gravesend,
14 August, 2025. Poetry reading and Nocturne for a Lighterman screening.
POW! in collaboration with Insurgent Press
Verbal Discharge North, All Good Bookshop, London N8, 28 August 2025. Poetry reading and screening and Nocturne for a Lighterman screening.
Nocturno para un lanchero
FOTOGENIA no. 7, International Cinepoetry and Divergent Narratives Festival, Mexico City, November, 2025
In 1872, whilst living beside the river Thames in Chelsea, London, James Abbott McNeill Whistler produced the atmospheric, tonal painting Nocturne in Blue and Gold, Old Battersea Bridge. Influenced by Japanese prints, his innovative work was totally misunderstood and even ridiculed in Victorian England. Sarah Tremlett's ancestor was a lighterman (bargeman), living at the same time, at Swan Wharf, Battersea, on the poor side of the river, and just a stone’s throw from this view. It is possible the man in the picture could be George, and he could even have ferried Whistler to ideal sites for painting. However, I also felt that there were hidden emotional currents in both their backgrounds that unknowingly made Whistler drawn to the lonely figure. The poem is written in neo-Symbolist mode, and the contemporary footage is from the same point of view as the painting. The soundscape by leading Belgian composer Marc Neys, though not inspired by Debussy, evolved from Tremlett’s fascination with his repetitive phrases, and his friendship with Whistler. This film is taken from TREE, a forthcoming family history chronicle by Sarah Tremlett.
This is the shorter, five-minute version of the film. There is also a seven-minute version with a longer poem.
This work also experiments with painting with film
BEST SOUND DESIGN Bracciano Film and Arts Festival, Italy, July 2025 for the extended version
REELpoetry, Houston, April, 2025
Absurdah Film Festival, v. 5 Sheerness, UK, August, 2025
Nomination Digital Graffix Film Awards, Montreal, Canada, 2025 (best sound)
The River Has No Colour project, curated by Lee Campbell, London, 2025. POW! In collaboration with Hypermedia, Gravesend,
14 August, 2025. Poetry reading and Nocturne for a Lighterman screening.
POW! in collaboration with Insurgent Press
Verbal Discharge North, All Good Bookshop, London N8, 28 August 2025. Poetry reading and screening and Nocturne for a Lighterman screening.
Nocturno para un lanchero
FOTOGENIA no. 7, International Cinepoetry and Divergent Narratives Festival, Mexico City, November, 2025
