What happens when we disturb the bones of the dead?
What the artist says
What happens when we disturb the bones of the dead? Through visuals by Thomas Riggs and original sound recordings by Timothy Stuart Wee, CROSS BONES explores the elusive history of a backstreet London shrine and the restless spirits of those believed to be buried there.
CROSS BONES takes the viewer on a subterranean journey into the unknown, guided by the mysterious figure of the Goose, to an abandoned industrial site whose future is just as uncertain as its nefarious past.
Filmed in and around Southwark, CROSS BONES presents itself as a meditation on historical artefacts, contemporary folklore and the voices of a forgotten‚ outcast dead, that inhabit London’s south bank.
About the artist
Thomas Riggs is a photographer and recent graduate from the London College of Communication. While at university he interned as a photographer and picture editor at Transport for London. Thomas has worked with both traditional and digital photography, video and computer programming to explore the boundaries of modern photographic practice.
What we think
A really well researched and structured piece of work that drew me into the history behind CROSS BONES. I found the narrative particularly compelling and the stitching between found sound, interviews and static camera shots made it a low-key, but nonetheless engaging experience to dwell on a particular history and the presence of contemporary folklore in this part of London. CROSS BONES is a piece where archeology and the camera overlap, where a preserve of history is achieved but does not spiral into nostalgia.
Thomas Riggs was selected for the Photoworks LCC Award. See an interview with him here.
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