10th November 2023 INTERIOR (THE SPECTATOR), a film by Matthew Burdis, narrated by Willem Dafoe Interior (The Spectator), 2023, 18 minutes 52 seconds Matthew Burdis is an artist-filmmaker who is the studio manager and archivist at The Estate of Howard Hodgkin. His recent film Interior (The Spectator), narrated by Willem Dafoe, contemplates Burdis’ relationship to the painter Howard Hodgkin, through working at his home and studio. The highly personalised domestic interior of Hodgkin’s London home becomes a container to explore this relationship: as objects and belongings draw out themes of personal loss, memory and identity. Seemingly beginning as a memoir, the narration and images directly correspond to each other. This structure begins to fracture as images disjoint from the text, before reconnecting at particular moments. The script is collaged from personal writing, gathered quotes and references to literary sources to create an equivocal identity. Interior (The Spectator), short excerpt. The film will be shown in the Ingram Prize 2023, Cromwell Place, London, November 22 – 26. Special thanks to Antony Peattie, Diane Madden and The Estate of Howard Hodgkin.
