I'm not aware of you taking my skin', says the artist's mother to the camera as it zooms in on her eye as close as the lens will allow. Taking My Skin tracks a dialogue between the artist and her mother. Their exchange ranges from narrating the filming process 'in the moment' to relations in an earlier time - 'how long do you think it takes for a child to become separate?' Throughout the journey film spaces continuously dissolve and collapse only to separate again. Sometimes the artist is behind the camera, sometimes the mother, sometimes both simultaneously behind and in front, or neither. Both perform, film, and alternately instruct, position and direct the other. Formally and thematically, the film is an exploration of closeness, of synching, and the threat this poses to the self.



Directed and produced: Sarah Pucill
Funded: Arts & Humanities Research Council
Arts Council of England
Camera & performance: Sarah Pucill
Jane Pucill
Camera, lighting supervision: Megan Fraser
Sound technician: Megan Fraser
Editing & sound: Mairead MacClean


Distributed: Lux (London), Canyon Cinema (San Francisco), CFMDC (Toronto)

Recipient of the Marion McMahon Award, Images Festival, Toronto 2007

Festivals: Cork Film Festival 2006, European Media Art Festival, Osnabruck 2007, Images Festival, Toronto 2007, Ann Arbor 2008, Berlin Film Festival 2009

Exhibitions: Intervention Fieldgate Gallery, London 2007, Mother Cut New Jersey University Gallery (with Mary Kelly, Mona Hatoum) 2008