Sarah Tremlett (born in 1956, Sheffield, Yorkshire)See Family Search entry. is a British artist-philosopher, writer, poet, poetry film theorist,Who's Who in Research: The Visual Arts. Bristol: Intellect Books, 2013. and poetry filmmaker.She won the Maldito Video Poetry Festival prize, Albacete, Spain, 2021 with Selfie with Marilyn, 2020 commissioned by the Visible Poetry Project with poem by Heidi Seaborn and starring Tremlett's elder daughter, the performance and special effects artist Hatti Rees. She is known for working with subjectivity and voice, experimental video poetrySee 'Videopoetry: a manifesto by Tom Konyves' (2011) and Tom Konyves elsewhere on this page. Konyves spells Videopoetry as one word. and poetry films.Short films that typically include poetry either as voiceover and/or text on screen with the moving image and soundscape. See The Poetics of Poetry Film.
Tremlett is best known as the primary author and editor of The Poetics of Poetry Film.The Poetics of Poetry Film was the subject of an interview by Meriel Lland, March, 2021, screened at the 9th International Video Poetry Festival, Athens, 6 June 2021, Filmpoetry.org. This 400-page "ground-breaking, industry bible""The Poetics of Poetry Film", interview by Meriel Lland, March, 2021. establishes the merging of historical forms from song, visual and lyric poetry alongside the origins of film, animation and performance. It interweaves philosophical threads through the genre and introduces a world survey of artists in their own voices.See chapter on international films shown at ZEBRA poetry film festival by Thomas Zandegiacomo del Bel; video poets from Portugal and Spain in a chapter by the leading poetry filmmaker and poet Charles Olsen, and Argentina and Latin America from Marisol Bellusci, leading video poet and a director of VideoBardo, Buenos Aires, Argentina; also: "The Archaeology of the Text – The Poetics of Poetry Film", interview by Rebecca Rezakhani Hilton, Atticus Review, 10 September 2022.
She was a fashion model in her youth.Bobton's, 40 King's Road, London, SW3 4UD. See also: Michaeljohn advert, Ritz Newspaper Supplement, Autumn/Winter Collections, 1979. This is documented in her poetic memoir Horse-Woman,See Publications. which revisits a traumatic and bohemian period in her past, writing, painting and modelling whilst living in a bedsit in London.
She is editor of the poetry film website Liberated Words online.See Liberated Words under Films and Projects# below.
Her project Tree is a long-running investigation into her unknown family history and includes prose, poetry and poetry films.See her website and Family History on Liberated Words.
Early life Tremlett was brought up by oldish parents.Her father Henry F. Tremlett, born in 1906 and her mother Dora née Jenkinson, born in 1914, were married in Sheffield in 1939 [1939, quarter 3, vol. 9C, p. 1812, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, General Register Office, Southport, England]. She later became a model,For Bobton's on the King's Road, Chelsea, London SW3. See also: Michaeljohn advertisement, Ritz Newspaper Supplement, Autumn/Winter Collections, 1979. notably for the bohemian fashion designer Thea Porter,McLaws Helms, L. and Porter, V., Thea Porter – Bohemian Chic, London: V&A Publishing, 2015, p. 140. modelling for the Hollywood legend Lauren Bacall in New York.Horse-Woman, p. 24. She left fashion and worked backstage at Cambridge Arts Theatre, where she made costumes for the landmark "100 Years of the Cambridge Greek Play"."A Hundred Years of the Cambridge Greek Play" programme, The Women of Trachis by Sophocles, 22–6 February 1983. She also made hand-painted lampshades with "cave paintings" on them, which were sold at Aspects and at Practical Styling, the household goods and furniture outlet near Centre Point owned by Tommy Roberts.Aspects, Whitfield St, London W1; Practical Styling, 16 St Giles High Street, London WC2. See House and Garden, May 1985, p. 20, and 19 magazine, March 1985, p. 9.
In the 1980s she exhibited her paintings."Sarah's Work Catches the Eye", Royston Weekly News, 16 February 1989, front page. See also Women in Art, The Bowmoore Gallery, 8 Halkin Arcade, Motcomb St, London SW1X 8JT, November 2–11, 1989 (gallery's promotional flyer); Sarah Tremlett, The Old Fire Engine House, Ely, 8 February – 4 March 1989. See also Pauline Hunt, "Visual Arts" in Cambridge Evening News, 17 February 1989, p. 22. She worked for Silent Books, Swavesey, Cambridgeshire, producing and marketing art and poetry books illustrated with wood engravings.See "The Archaeology of Text", interview with Sarah Tremlett, Atticus Review.
Career From 1995 to 1998, Tremlett and her partner, the science publisher Robin Rees,See biographical data for Moore & Rees Patrick Moore's Data Book of Astronomy. lived and worked in the United States, where they were married.Record of marriage. Tremlett showed her paintingsAt The Gallery off The Square, Narberth, PA. See "New artists find their niche in a new venue", Catherine Quillman, Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 August 1997, p. B1. See also Making Marilyn: an interview with filmmaker Sarah Tremlett. and wrote scripts including the stage play, The Forger (about the emotional relationship between a forger and a curator), which was commissioned by First Stage and performed at the Grand Opera House in Wilmington, Delaware.Rick Mulrooney, "Grand's new venue suits 'Mirrors & Smoke', The News Journal, Newcastle County, Delaware, 15 July 1998, p. D2.
Tremlett completed an MA in creative writing at Bath Spa University (2001),Awarded 10 December 2002, Bath Spa University. and went on to gain a distinction in a Fine Art Practice degree at Buckinghamshire New University (2005) with her thesis "Women and Text".Tremlett, S. (2005) "Women and Text". High Wycombe: Amersham and Wycombe College, Buckinghamshire New University, BA thesis. In 2015 she completed a research degree at the University of the Arts London titled "Re : turning from graphic verse to digital poetics".Tremlett, S. (2015) "Re : turning from graphic verse to digital poetics – historical rhythms and digital transitional effects in Graphic Poetry Films". London: University of the Arts, MPhil thesis .
Since 2008 she has presented papers and essays, centring on subjectivity, imageSee: "Making Marilyn: An Interview with Filmmaker Sarah Tremlett" by Rita Mae Reese, All Review, June, 2021. and voice, and the intersection between poetry, film and philosophy.See her essay "Exploring Contemplative Effects in Text-based Video Poems", Poetry Film Magazin, no. 3, 2017, pp. 32–5. , published by the Literary Society of Thuringia in Weimar and accessible on the online sites: Academia and Atticus Review. She was described as a "Visual Philosopher" by Karina Karaeva of the NCCA National Centre for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, who exhibited her video poems: Blanks in Discourse : 06 at VideoFormat – [Linearity] Impakt Festival, 2009 and Patterned Utterance and Blanks in Discourse : 03 at Modus Group and Sarah Tremlett with Project Fabrika, 2010.It was in relation to her conceptual text-based work, e.g. Patterned Utterance and Blanks in Discourse : 03 that she was described thus by Karina Karaeva, The Poetics of Poetry Film, Bristol: Intellect Books, 2021, p. 8. She was exhibited in VideoFormat – [Linearity] National Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, co-curated by Arjon Dunnewind / Impakt Festival, 2009; Modus Group and Sarah Tremlett – Project Fabrika, National Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia, 2010.
A solo show Voices or Silences / Garsai Ar Tyla at the Cultural Communication Centre, Klaipeda, Lithuania in 2009 explored text and subjectivity in print and onscreen.See Making Marilyn: an interview with filmmaker Sarah Tremlett. In 2012 the first MIX conference was born, and with the poet Lucy English she formed the project Liberated Words to screen poetry films from around the world.
She has worked with her two daughters, Hatti and Georgie, in her poetry films: see Villanelle for Elizabeth not Ophelia and Selfie with Marilyn, where Hatti plays Marilyn.Hatti Rees (aka XaiLA) is a performance, make-up and special effects artist. This poetry film, with poem by the American poet Heidi Seaborn and commissioned by the Visible Poetry Project, won the Maldito Video Poetry Festival prize in 2021.See report of 2021 Maldito Video Poetry Festival.
Lectures and presentations Key speaker VideoBardo Festival "The Word as a Leaf", Por La Tierra / For the Earth, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2012)The Poetics of Poetry Film. Bristol: Intellect Books, p. xix. "The Role of the Voice in Poetry Films" at FOTOGENIA Film Poetry and Divergent Narratives Film Festival, Mexico City, Mexico (2021) "Sound in Videopoetry", a lecture given at "New Art Emerging: Two or Three Things One Should Know About Videopoetry", Surrey City Centre Library, Surrey, Vancouver, Canada, 2022, convened by Tom Konyves in relation to the exhibition Poets with a Videocamera: Videopoetry 1980–2020 2022, where Tremlett's video poem some everybodies was featured for the years 2008–10See Ten Questions for Tom Konyves.
Presentations 2008 "Matternal Philosophy, Female Subjectivity and Text in Art", Consciousness Reframed Conference IX, University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Presentation, screening, book chapter. Video poems: Blanks in Discourse : 05; Blanks in Discourse : 06; Patterned Utterance"Matternal Philosophy, Female Subjectivity and Text in Art", in Ascott, Roy; Bast, Gerald; Fiel, Wolfgang (eds) New Realities: Being Syncretic, New York: Springer, 2008, pp. 292–6 .
2009 Voices or Silences / Garsai Ar Tyla solo show, Cultural Communication Centre, Klaipeda, LithuaniaSee Making Marilyn: an interview with filmmaker Sarah Tremlett. "Design and Non-Dualist Filmic Experience", Consciousness Reframed X – 10th Annual Planetary Collegium International Research Conference, experiencing design, behaving media, Macromedia University of Applied Sciences, Munich, Germany. Presentation paper, screening, book chapter. Video poem some everybodiesSome Everybodies – Design and non-"dualist filmic experience", Experiencing Design, behaving media, Munich, Germany: Consciousness Reframed Conference X programme, 2009, pp. 99–100.
2010 "Perception and Videoprosody" MIX conference (Merging Intermedia), Bath Spa University, Bath. Presentation paper and video poem: Error, Eros
2011 "Text, Light and Matternal Philosophy of Practice", Chelsea College of Arts Library and Old College Library, London. From Kinetic Works to Digital Poetics, exhibition of Liliane Lijn's cones and sketchbooks and Sarah Tremlett's poetry film Patterned Utterance. Interview with Liliane Lijn, Chelsea Lecture TheatreSee Moving Poems: Sarah Tremlett.
2012 "The Word as a Leaf", Por La Tierra / For the Earth, VideoBardo video poetry festival, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Invited speaker, paper with video poems: AMAM AMMA and She, Seasons, Contemplating NatureSee The Poetics of Poetry Film Bristol: Intellect Books Ltd, p. xix. "Perception and Videoprosody" (Merging Intermedia), Bath Spa University, Bath. Presentation paper and video poem: Error, Eros (2010)See MIX 2012 Archive.
2013 "Between art, poetry and film: Remediating the moving digital poem", Text on Screens, MIX conference, Bath Spa University, BathSee MIX 2013 archive. "From Prosody to Moving Prosody", e-Poetry conference, Kingston University, London. Presentation (including overview of historical poetry films) and video poems: Error, Eros and She, Seasons, Contemplating NatureSee Moving Poem: Sarah Tremlett.
2014 "Re: Turning – rhythm and poetry film", the South Bank Poetry International Festival (Festival of Love), London. Presentation and screening "Poetry Film and Form", Liberated Words III, Reflections and Memory 1914–2014, partly held at Arnolfini Art Gallery, the YMCA and at Encounters Short Film and Animation FestivalThe Poetics of Poetry Film Bristol: Intellect Books, pp: 44, 53, 70, 93.
2015