RUNNING TIME - 01.22.58 Ratio - ACADEMY 1.33.1 Stereo Sound SUPER 8 and COLOUR/B/W apps HD Pinhole Photographs 16mm ARCHIVE THE WHALEBONE BOX is a film about a whale bone box. A box made of whale bone. Entangled in a fisherman’s net and washed up on a remote beach in the Outer Hebrides. Once touched the box can change lives. The box was given to Iain Sinclair almost thirty years ago by Steve Dilworth, a sculptor based on the Island of Harris. It was always intended to be an active thing, kill or cure. An animal battery. And part of the power of the crafted box comes from its lack of signature. At best this object has the anonymity and moral authority of tribal art, of a fetish, a relic or an accidental survivor. It is dangerous. What is inside might produce good magic or it might produce bad magic but like the box that contained Schrödinger’s Cat, it must never to be opened.
In 2018 the box was taken on an 800 mile reverse pilgrimage from London back to the Isle of Harris, in the company of the film-maker Andrew Kötting, the photographer Anonymous Bosch and the writer Iain Sinclair. There was unwellness on the island and they hoped that the box might help, however little did they know the delirium that they would unleash.
And all the while Eden Kötting narrates the story, working as both muse and mystic. She tries to make sense of the journey as it unfolds, sometimes awake and sometimes asleep. Ultimately the whalebone box is finally buried in the sand on the very beach from which it came all those eversomany years ago BUT something happens at the very end of the film after the credits have finished rolling, something extraordinary and miraculous…. Incorporating elements of archive and pinhole photography the film is shot using mainly super 8 and super 8 apps. The film celebrates the notion of the home-made but is also an exercise in hauntological mad cap…. The WHALEBONE BOX sees Andrew Kötting reuniting with Iain Sinclair for yet another remarkable collaboration after their critically acclaimed and ground baking Journeyworks: SWANDOWN, BY OUR SELVES and EDITH WALKS, except this time their machismo is undermined and subverted by the angelic presence Kötting’s daughter Eden. She transports us into a world of wonder, to a place that the audience might never have been before. Eden Kötting born on 6th April is an English artist with Joubert Syndrome. Most of her work is rooted in the elsewhere. Andrew Kötting born on 16th December is an English artist, writer and filmmaker. Most of his work is rooted in Britain, France and the elsewhere. Iain Sinclair born on 11th June is a Welsh poet, writer and filmmaker. Much of his work is rooted in London and the elsewhere. Anonymous Bosch born sometime is an English artist and photographer. Much of his work is about capturing the elsewhere. FILM MAKER - ANDREW KÖTTING
WITH - EDEN KÖTTING - IAIN SINCLAIR - PHILIP HOARE - MACGILLIVRAY - KYUNWAI SO - CEYLAN ÜNAL - HELEN PARIS CAMERAS - ANONYMOUS BOSCH
WITH NICK GORDON SMITH - ANDREW KÖTTING - IAIN SINCLAIR - TONY HILL SOUND - ANDREW KÖTTING
EDIT - ANDREW KÖTTING
ANIMATIONS - ISABEL SKINNER
STILL IMAGERS - JOHN MAHER
SOUND MIX - PHILIPPE CIOMPI
PRODUCER - ANDREW KÖTTING
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - JASON WOOD
COLOUR GRADE & FIX - SAM SAHRPLES