The Monster Trilogy

The Monster Trilogy

Inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein this series of moving image works explores the notion that we create our own monsters from fear. Through processes of improvisation and collaboration Eelyn Lee locates real and fictional characters in an unspecified time and place somewhere along the Thames Estuary to play out a response to the arrival of a stranger.


“All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” - Leo Tolstoy


Taking the story premise, 'a stranger comes to town' each film reveals how a small estuarine community is thrown in to turmoil when a mysterious creature appears in the mud at low tide.

The first iteration, Monster [16mins/2015] was devised and filmed over five days in a black box theatre space at the Barbican. It was selected for the BAFTA Qualifying Aesthetica Short Film Festival and has been presented by film curator Gareth Evans [Whitechapel Gallery] at the Barbican and Close-Up Cinemas, London.

Eelyn was invited by Metal, an arts lab on the Thames Estuary, to further develop the work through a series of residencies at their base in Southend-on-Sea. From here Eelyn extended her collaboration to local residents and made the second iteration, Creature of the Estuary [22mins/2016] which was presented at Estuary 2016 at an outdoor screening at Coalhouse Fort.

In December 2016 a special screening of Monster and Creature of the Estuary at Focal Point Gallery, Southend, marked the first ever double bill screening of the first two iterations of the Trilogy.

Both films have been supported by Arts Council England and feature BAFTA-winning actress Anamaria Marinca.

To complete the trilogy Eelyn is currently developing a feature-length film for theatrical release.

 

Photo Credit: Film still from Creature of the Estuary by Eelyn Lee / Cinematographer: Dominik Rippl

News

IMAGE New International Art Commission

Wednesday, 29 January 2025
Eelyn has been commissioned to make a new piece of moving image work, to be exhibited at the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival, 13-29 June, 2025; São Paulo Biennial, Sept, 2025, and the Karachi Biennial, Oct 2026. Building on her research and work made along the Thames Estuary in 2016, Eelyn will continue her exploration of the tidal Thames as a... Read More...

IMAGE Eelyn Lee in Conversation with Sci-Fi writer, Dr Yen Ooi

Thursday, 14 November 2024
An illustrated discussion with artist Eelyn Lee and writer-researcher, Dr Yen Ooi about their ongoing collaboration –a call and response creative dialogue between artist and writer. Drawing on migratory energies and ancestral stories, their work creates new orientations, shaped by East and Southeast Asian [ESEA] diasporic experiences. Book FREE... Read More...

IMAGE Ancestral Futures - A Street Procession in Sheffield

Thursday, 15 August 2024
Ancestral Futures 源流之後 is a processional street performance in honour of the first recorded Chinese people in Sheffield –a group of magicians on tour from China who performed at the Whitsuntide Festival, 1855. 

 On 31st May, 1855, the lead magician, Teh Kwei 德貴, buried his 5-week old baby in a Sheffield graveyard.... Read More...