The Interval And The Instant

About

The Interval and the Instant is an ambitious new multiscreen video installation by British filmmaker Steven Eastwood. The work addresses the taboo subject of dying, reflecting current attitudes in palliative care and society around end of life experience and the visibility of the dying person.

It was filmed over a one year period at the Earl Mountbatten Hospice, Isle of Wight and has been produced with the full consent and involvement of inpatients, outpatients and staff of the hospice.

“Art and film involving death and dying still has taboo status in terms of what western society can and cannot sanction. It is as though the image of dying is not something we should see, or even want to see. As a consequence, there is very little filmmaking done with the consent and collaboration of the dying person and there are few moving images of the very end of life. This extends all the way through culture. We don’t talk about death and dying in schools - there is no death education. Exhibitors are reluctant to programme content relating to death for fear of limited audience. And yet everyone has a personal experience with death and the fact that we will die is as every day and as natural an occurrence as birth”.   Steven Eastwood, Artist