Paradise Falls I, by Kate McMillan. HD film, 2.49 minutes, editioned to three. Music by Cat Hope, performed by Decibel.  Shown in the exhibition also entitled ‘Paradise Falls’, Venn Gallery, June 2012.

This film was shot in the Black Forest in 2011 during a residency with the Christoph Merian Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland. The lake in the image is on the top of an extinct volcanic for called Mummelsee (Mother Lake). There are many myths associated with this lake in German folklore, most notably about a siren who lures men into the forest and kills them. ‘Paradise Falls I’ considers how history can leave a residue in the landscape and the past often comes back to haunt us.