The Edge of Emily's Desk

‘The Edge of Emily's Desk’ is a video work shot on location at Emily Dickinson’s family home (The Homestead) in Amherst, Massachusetts, by permission of the Emily Dickinson Museum. Filming took place in Dickinson’s bedroom where the poet’s 17-inch writing table sits in the southwest corner of the room. Presented as a four-screen video installation, the work becomes an exploration in scale, colour and detail. Here, close and careful observation couples patient surprise to evoke, through durational medium of video and the spatial configuration of the four screens, the writing space of the poet as much as the focused attention demanded by a reception of Dickinson’s work. The work was presented at Woburn Square Studios as part of the Research Spaces exhibition and conference, hosted by the Bartlett School of Architecture and the Slade School of Fine Art at University College London.