Counting In Another Language brings together digital work addressing themes of displacement, alternative realities and language. Bettina Furnée’s solo show at The Ruskin Gallery at Anglia Ruskin University includes three different time-lapse sequences for Here’s Luck, shot on a pocket camera during her Eastern Exchanges residency in the Caribbean. The short films document the workings of the tides on an emergency shelter on a deserted tropical beach, with the same scenario filmed on different days. The films are combined with narrative texts contributed by people of the local Bahamian community (mostly of African or European lineage) in response to the films. These texts were written, read aloud and recorded during the Instant Writing Event, held at The Hub in Nassau in July 2011. All contributed texts are published together in a print on demand pamphlet produced by AND Publishing.

Also shown is a series of four short digital films, shot at ARU’s film studio as part of Furnée’s participation in the AA2A access scheme. Domestic Celestial Events shows a variety of household objects filmed against a spacey black background. The footage is combined with recorded interviews with couples contemplating going on an extended mission to the moon with their partner. A transcript of the spoken words appears in juxtaposition to the images, expanding both use and meaning of language. The interviews and texts were created in collaboration with writer Lucy Sheerman, and the voices spoken by actors.

The main screen in the gallery shows One Way Chorus, a randomly changing text display of 113 maxims, drawn from the interviews with these couples, reflecting inner life onto outer space. These statements form an ambient and ambiguous presence, touching on the assumptions, hopes and desires we have for an alternative future, and the faith we invest in others. One Way Chorus, written by Lucy Sheerman, was sung in plainchant on the opening night by Eleanor Holroyd and Melissa Guiliano.

All films are shown on digital screens in the gallery, installed with some of the household objects that appear in the films, such as lamps, fruit on a table, and a large potted plant.

Installation views, The Ruskin Gallery, Anglia Ruskin University, 2015