https://vimeo.com/318633809
Shiver – TRT 2:10
I write quickly and instinctively, allowing an interplay between my subconscious and conscious mind until the narrative appears. Writing for me is a very visual experience resulting in vivid imagery which easily translates to film giving the poem another life beyond the page and provides another layer for me to guide the audience’s interpretation of the text. I enjoy making the music for my films as it ties these two elements together, creating a mood that reflects the world in which the poem lives. My work often explores the human experience and the friction between ideals and feelings of incompatibility with the status quo. I create for the joy, the need and relief it seems to give me and others. I have an intimate relationship with my art, I measure myself against it and I strive to narrow the space between me and it.
Shiver is a Poetry Film presented from the perspective of a woman reflecting on her triumph over childhood domestic violence. Based on a true story, this honest and powerful poem is brought to life using video, animation and an electronic soundtrack to create a dark but hopeful dream like image of beauty that is segmented but still whole. The viewer is taken on a journey that reveals an ever increasing strength of spirit to turn the tables on her abuser, “I am not cold and I shiver not for you, I tremble for I am the thunder that troubles you”.
MARK NIEHUS Adelaide born Poet and Artist Mark Niehus combines his poetry with original digital art, video and music to create outcomes that capture and expand the mood, rhythms and meaning of his writing. Always seeking to discover new ways to apply his experimental ethos to engage audiences and push the boundaries of his art, Mark’s work illuminates and transforms urban environments and internal spaces into captivating visual canvases and poetic soundscapes.
For more than a decade Mark has conceived and delivered an array of urban projections , street art murals, illustrations, installations and composed spontaneous poems for the public on his typewriter for Local Government, Arts organisations, festivals and numerous solo exhibitions. Mark has also published a book of poems and featured in variety of online journals. Well versed in language and prose, visual art and a former London based new media designer, Mark has carved his own path as a self taught short filmmaker. Over the last twelve months Mark has written, directed, produced and composed music for five funded short films that have been projected on vacant shop windows or building facades across Adelaide, and in October 2018 Mark’s film ‘Shiver’ was an official selection at the Juteback Poetry Film Festival in Colorado, USA.
Mark’s films frequently explore human experience and the friction between ideals and feelings of incompatibility with the status quo. Beginning the filmmaking process with a poem, Mark’s trademark is films with an on original literary lineage.
17 Days Video Series 