The Drowning Room
Patrick Jolley and Reynold Reynolds
2000, 8mm film transferred to HD, B/W, sound, 10 mins
The Drowning Room presents a sequence of domestic vignettes from the sunken suburbs. Here, in the house, the stagnant atmosphere has slowly thickened to liquid. The inhabitants appear to go through the motions of everyday life, but communication is limited and expression difficult. Filmed entirely underwater—the medium of emotion and the subconscious—The Drowning Room creates an atmosphere that is dream-like and deeply claustrophobic. This short film is redolent of hostility and the repression that is so often sublimated in the rituals of normal life.