Remembrance of Things Past

Remembrance of Things Past, 2006. 35 mm film re-mastered and transferred to digital format, 2021. Dual-screen moving image work and installation. Colour with sound. All Rights Reserved. DACS. This filmwork takes its title from the translation of Marcel Proust’s novel In Search of Lost Time (1913–27). It is a powerful non-narrative artist's film that portrays an insight into the lives of a group of young adolescents who whilst waiting for a bus to pick them up, are forced to occupy themselves. Shot in the harbour of Toronto, it is based on a real-life uncanny encounter Biswas witnessed in 2002 from the fifth floor of the Radisson Hotel in Queens Quay. A bus carrying a group of young teenagers pulled up at a stop by the quayside a seemingly ‘no man’s land’ stopping point along the harbour. The children disembarked, the bus departed leaving the teenagers accompanied by an adult, to wait seemingly without purpose. After a short while of leaning against posts and walls at the quayside, the group (both female and male adolescents) began to occupy themselves. First by grouping into smaller units, and then by acting out a series of quite ordinary but beguiling activities such as singing to each other. After some time, just as suddenly as the bus had left, a second bus arrived. An adult (teacher presumably) climbed on and then re-emerged into the open. She appeared to give instruction to the on-looking children, who after a fashion, began to climb into the bus. There was some counting of heads inside the bus, a strange time delay before the bus finally closed its doors, visibly shuddered, and then drove away. It was the seemingly unspectacular nature of this moment which led Biswas to reflect on the strange rite of passage between childhood and adult life. 

Beautifully shot, and visually moving between a documentary and fictional style, within the work the right-hand screen shows the camera weaving between one group of adolescents and another, as if catching their actions and thoughts. Meanwhile the left-hand screen remains fixed allowing the viewer to watch the traffic of the major arterial road routes that dissect the plane of the shot from in front and behind. The soundtrack is a collage of sounds; traffic passing and observations made by various members of the group, who slowly reveal their personal views on 'what the world expects of them'. It is a moving work, which takes the viewer by surprise as they are brought to reflect on the present moment and the futility of their own lives.