Welter II

And behold! a pit of great breadth and depth appeared, with a mouth like the mouth of a well, emitting a dampness with great stench. The elongation of the atmosphere threatened mould, from which, a loathsome cloud spread out and grew a deceitful vein-shaped form.

Welter is an ongoing, iterative moving image work made by Victoria Gray & Sam Williams. The work explores the affective, psychosomatosensory experience of being autistic, as well as intersecting interoceptive experiences of dissociation and complex PTSD.

Welter - both verb and noun - is a slippery and tense concept, evoking imagery of a writhing, messy, distress. Informed by lived experience of stimming movements, Victoria repeats patterns of motions and postures that at times are rhythmic and wavelike and at others sharper, more staccato. Through movement, text, sound and animation, the film is an attempt to communicate the invisible, phenomenological dimension of neurodivergent experience, in order to perform the rich kinaesthetic and psychic intelligences that spring from that inner world.

By deliberately exploiting ambiguity - of language, form, and meaning - Welter speaks to the ways in which autistic sensory experience can enrich - and conflict with - contemporary performance and visual arts practice, as well as, more abstractly, reflect on the power and limitations of traditional linguistic communication.

Filmed at Quaker Meeting House, Acomb, York
Camera: Sam Williams
Performance & Movement Language: Victoria Gray
Editing: Sam Williams & Victoria Gray
Text: Victoria Gray
Animation: Sam Williams
Sound Score: Sam Williams
Sound editing & Post-production: Jonathan Webb