In honour of the critically endangered European Eel - a species that used to be prevalent in the Thames - the film is both a lament and a healing ritual. Communicating with sounds reverberating through air and water, a shaman-like character conjures an eel deity. Exhausted and weighed down by ecological grief, the deity drifts downriver, guided by a polyphonic, 'Eel Chorus'.
While devising this new mythology, Eelyn and her collaborators considered what they could learn from eels if they viewed them too as collaborators. Through a process of co-learning and research along the upper reaches of the tidal Thames, the work draws on local knowledge, scientific research, and universal mythology to imagine a small act of healing.
Commissioned by Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival for Imagining the Forest, a partnership project and touring exhibition, curated by Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival (England), Karachi Biennial (Pakistan) and the Guarani Mbyá Community (Brazil).
For documentation of the presentation in Brazil visit Eelyn's Instagram post.
Imagining the Forest also includes work by Nadeem Alkarimi, Qadir Jhatial and Sadqain Riaz (Pakistan), and Rafael Vilela with the Guarani Mbyá Community (Brazil). Conversations between artists, curators, and wider communities are ongoing. As the exhibition tours to each country, more knowledge and ecological witnessing is exchanged, and relationships deepen.
Supported by the British Council through their International Collaborations grants.
Imagining the Forest Exhibitions and Presentations:
Richmond Art and Ideas Festival, 13th - 29th June, 2025
Orleans House Gallery, 4th July - 21st Sept, 2025
14th São Paulo International Architecture Biennale: Pindó Mirim - Jaraguá Guarani Indigenous land, Sao Paulo, 19th - 22nd September, 2025
Karachi Biennale, January, 2027
Collaborators Include:
Eel Deity performed by Elisabeth Gunawen
Conjuror performed by Chen Xu
Singers: Clay Slade, Lydia Samuels, Rosalie Warner, Verity Standen
Eel Chorus composed by Verity Standen
Percussion devised and performed by Angela Wai Nok Hui
Cinematography - 牛欣郁 Sunshine Hsien Yu, Niu
Sound Design - Jane Lo
Costume Design - Chauntier Irish-Downes, Leila Sexton-Whitby
Produced by Eelyn Lee
Associate Producer - Tala Lee-Turton
Thanks to
Michele Whitby
Eel Pie Boatyard
Eel Pie Island Museum
Zoological Society of London
