Stina Wirfelt

Taking as its starting point the photographic archives of the Thistle Foundation and Craigmillar Festival Society, rather than examining the known facts and details of the photographs held in the archives, the narrator uses them to recall her own memories of making photographs as a teenager.

Every time the task of drawing a circle is performed, it results in a unique shape, a slightly different 'version' than the previous and next attempt. BEFORE WORDS is loosely based on Margaret Tait's unrealised script VIDEO POEMS FOR THE 90s. The video is an attempt at following a set of simple instructions, to observe through another artist's words and ideas in order to arrive at something personal.

The video connects Irish ghost estates, a Hollywood film shoot in Glasgow, a hearsay story about a man finding playing cards, and two misplaced mosaics in Edinburgh, by using elements of a living room. The room is inhabited by an unreliable narrator, who explores facts, fiction and his personal memories whilst telling the story. The connections made are sometimes obvious, sometimes obscure, all of them originating from the psychogeographical surroundings of the main protagonist.