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London artist The Fandangoe Kid tackles grief and death in her new film


London artist The Fandangoe Kid wants to get us talking about death (Picture: The Fandangoe Kid)

London print artist The Fandangoe Kid works with dancing and rituals to unpack and change the way we talk about grief.

In her new film collaboration, Into Your Light, she seeks to smash taboos around the complex subject matter of death.

‘In 2011 I lost almost all my family in an accident on the East river,’ reads the first scene in The Fandangoe Kid (Annie Nicholson) and Tara Darby’s new short film. The quote is a chilling line out of The Fandangoe Kid’s experience – and the paragraphs that follow are similarly heartbreaking: ‘In 2016, my father, the only remaining survivor of the accident, died after a long battle with cancer.’

The words, white and bold on a black background, are being projected onto the Manhattan bridge in New York City. It’s 6 June, the premiere night of The Fandangoe Kid and Tara Darby’s film, and beneath them flows the East river, silently and unstoppably.

‘If someone had told me 8 years ago when my heart was smashed to smithereens that I would be telling my story BIG BIG BIG on the Manhattan Bridge, right by the river where I lost the people I love the most, one after the other, I’d NEVER have believed them,’ The Fandangoe Kid writes on her Instagram page later that night.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByZfM7BH1G1/

Their new film focuses on dancing as a ritual for survival and as a unifying force.

‘After losing most of my family in an accident and spending a lot of time with my dad for the making of this film, I noticed that everyone has their own rituals as a means of survival,’ the artist explains. ‘It’s often these really small things that someone takes pleasure in that help them get through the day. For me, one of these was dancing.’

The Fandangoe Kid is interested in looking at different rituals that help the process of unpacking trauma and grief, ‘and this film is also meant to be a prompt to come together and have a unifying dance.’

The film will be screening in London at an event by Pem People at Tate Modern on 17 August and 18 August as well as City Hall on 10 October

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The Fandangoe Kid trained in graphic design at the LCC and first started focusing on narrative-driven pieces during her studies in film and visual arts in Paris. Her art focuses around dismantling taboos around complex subject matters such as death, trauma, mental health and gender constructs.

Her art is almost always easily accessed on the streets and she aims to create a platform for dialogue, especially for young people.

‘Releasing stories inspired by loved ones over the last years in different storytelling approaches has been a real catharsis for me,’ The Fandangoe Kid tells Metro.co.uk. She hopes to help other people dealing with trauma and to help shape a new way we approach grief.

Tara Darby and The Fandangoe Kid first started working together in 2015, after The Fandangoe Kid had seen a trailer for Darby’s film Run it Out and reached out via email.

‘After noticing that we both lived in Hackney, we met up and there was an instant connection,’ Darby recalls. By the end of their meeting, they had decided to collaborate on the film.

Tara Darby explains how they initially wanted to make a more traditionally structured documentary but soon realised that they wanted to explore different themes that came up in a more unconventional way.

‘Grief can be so alienating and death is still such a taboo in our culture – we want to explore the cycle of life and death,’ says Tara.

For both creators, streaming the film in a public place is an important part of its message.

The Fandangoe Kid says: ‘The film evokes this real dancefloor vibe, even though its such a heavy subject, and that’s exactly what grief is all about: Parts of it are extremely difficult, and others are pure joy and gratitude.’

The artist duo hopes to offer a platform to open up the conversation surrounding death and trauma with their film, and plans on exploring more themes and workshops around love and loss.

The Fandangoe Kid asks: ‘A lot of people around me always had a very strong drive to try and rationalise or normalise death. But why is that?

‘Why can’t we open it up and make it a mainstream conversation?

‘It’s like life, people’s weddings and having babies are the biggest, most normal things that are talked about, when there’s another big certainty: death. We’re all born, and we’re all going to die, and it should be something that binds us.’

Into Your Light is screening at Tate Modern on 17 August and 18 August and at City Hall on 10 October. It was edited by Phillip Osborne and features music by Penelope Trappes and The Golden Filter as well as dancing by Housewarmers Collective, headed by Everton Bell-Chambers.

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