Deus ex Machina (video still) animation, 14 mins 2017

A moving image work written and made in collaboration by Glasgow based artists Katrina Valle (UK) and Selma Hreggviostottir (IC).

The voice of a female soprano penetrates the duration of the film and theatrical light introduces the animated protagonist.

She is the portrait of a building and over three acts she sings about material, buildings and the movement found within cities. Her lovers exist in her memory as buildings, domes and columns. Tragedies are expressed through her incantations. This film seeks to question notions of gender and poetry in cohabitation with architecture. The protagonist exists between the human and the artifice which causes her removal from time and space.

Deus ex Machina is an opera written by the artists which exists as as two separate works - as a video and live performance.