The Future's Getting Old Just Like the Rest of Us
In 2010, the Serpentine Gallery’s Skills Exchange and Camden Council’s Homes for Older People commissioned a major new film by London-based artist Beatrice Gibson.
Developed in collaboration with residents of Camden’s Homes for Older People, The Future’s Getting Old Like The Rest Of Us is a 16mm film conceived in the format of a television play and set in a care home. Part documentary, part fiction, the script for the film was created with writer and critic George Clark and was constructed from verbatim transcripts of a discussion group held over a period of five months with the residents of four of Camden’s care homes. Taking the 1971 experimental novel House Mother Normal by B.S. Johnson as its starting point and employing the structural logic of a musical score, the script takes a vertical structure, in which eight voices or eight monologues occur simultaneously. The Future’s Getting Old Like The Rest Of Us features actors Roger Booth, Corinne Skinner Carter, Janet Henfrey, Ram John Holder, Anne Firbank, John Tilbury, William Hoyland and Jane Wood.
Camden Council has co-commissioned this project with the Serpentine Gallery. In addition to the film, film stills and scripts were installed in the new care home, completed in 2012 at Maitland Park in Camden, London.
The Future’s Getting Old Like The Rest Of Us (2010, 45 mins) premiered on Friday 23rd July 2010 at the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2010 designed by Jean Nouvel as part of the Gallery’s Park Nights programme. An installation of the film was on show at the Serpentine Sackler Centre of Arts Education from 23rd July–19th September 2010.
The film is one of five commissions that have taken place as part of the Serpentine’s Skills Exchange, in which artists, designers and architects work in collaboration with older people, care workers, young people and activists to develop ideas for social and architectural change
The Future’s Getting Old Like The Rest Of Us was developed with the support of Flamin, Film London and funded by Grants for the Arts, Arts Council England.
