BONE | Mixed Media

In his short film ‘Bone’ Sharpe uses poetry and photography to illustrate how his experience of trauma has affected his perception of space. He reflects on a life threatening injury during his childhood where his skull was fractured and reconstructed to portray how it distorted the perception of his surroundings. Using The Barbican Centre as the location of his narrative, Sharpe transforms the area by connecting its characteristics to the traumatic event he experienced. He compares his bone to the concrete buildings, his blood to the water that stains them, and the lights to those which filled every hall, surgery and infirmary room in hospital. Colour is central to his narrative. He focuses on the similar tan flush of bone and concrete and the greenish hue that surrounds the area in its foliage, water, signage and lighting. Green connects the area to his time in hospital where everything seemed to have a tint of green. There were green wires attached to monitors which displayed vitals with green imaging, the green cross of medicine was everywhere. Trauma is very personal to those who experience it and so relating it to a place that is impersonal is what allows us to connect to and resonate with it. https://2023.rca.ac.uk/students/oliver-sharpe/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCcECO6gYAE&t=26s