This immersive film accurately reconstructs a lost space at the museum, formerly the home and workplace of Sir John Soane - the bedchamber of his wife Eliza, who died suddenly and tragically in 1815.
John Soane never got over her death, preserving her bedchamber for 19 years, and later creating private allusions to Eliza throughout the museum. A haunting soundtrack uses Soane’s own memoir of his grief at Eliza’s death to create a meditation on love and loss.
Through a combination of photogrammetry, CGI animation, sound, voice and song, the film is an imagined recreation of Eliza’s bedchamber, and a reclamation of Eliza’s presence.
Dear Friend... is produced by Anne-Marie Creamer and Gary Thomas at Animate Projects, with photogrammetry by John Griffin, digital animation by Edmund Brown, and music by Verity Standen.
Journalist and author Tom Jeffreys has written a beautiful introduction to the themes and history behind the project, which can be read here.
Alongside the exhibition, a series of events discussed related themes of memory, memorialisation and bereavement, exploring how we cope with dying and remember our dead.
The production and related events are supported using public funding from the National Lottery by Arts Council England, with additional support from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Exhibition events
22 March Panel discussion: Introducing Eliza, 6.30pm at the Soane. Tickets.
25 March The Eliza Late, from 6pm at the Soane. Tickets.
20 May Panel discussion: death, bereavement and creative approaches to memorialising, 6.30pm, online. Tickets.
Interested in learning more about Eliza's life at Lincoln's Inn Fields, but can't make it to any of our events? Follow the Eliza Trail online, written by our Archivist and Head of Library Services, Susan Palmer.
