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Any Instant Whatever Michelle Brand

It's the details from Scottish indie band Constant Follower's beautiful video for the track What's Left To Say, created by artist George Farrow-Hawkins - an empty living room, a hospital bed, a hand held- that are devastating, particularly for anyone who has experienced loss. This simple but effective film, which Farrow-Hawkins made using recycled materials, deals with what remains when we experience a loved one who no longer recognises us through a serious illness, and how we cope. All we can do, it suggests, is just be there, and be present with them. The song too is a beautiful ballad, and a work of art in its own right. "It's okay just to sit and be", say the lyrics, as the family members check in and hope for some more time, any time, with those they're closest to.

London-based film maker and artist Michelle Brand's brilliant short Any Instant Whatever is influenced by both Cubism and Surrealism, and is extremely trippy. A man sits alone at a desk, seemingly experiencing drug-induced paranoia, metal health problems,or both. As his mind fragments, so too, do his once secure surroundings- time stretches out in unknowable quantities, chairs are cut into slices and fall backwards, blocks and shapes of pure primary colours appear, disappear, and slip, dip and slide through the shadowy room, which also seems to be evading his grasp.

Even his own face and hands change, with colour draining from him and reappearing elsewhere. There is an exceptional use of saturated colour throughout, and wonderfully creepy sound effects like bells and creaking timber (also created by Brand). The various homages to modern art movements provide an imaginative and disturbing sense of psychic disassociation. With more people experiencing mental health problems and loneliness during the pandemic, this piece of animation couldn't have arrived at a more timely point.

Lorna Irvine