The Child, Artist, Woman is a three screen installation about Queen’s Park: one stream depicts the park from a child’s view, another offers a surrealist interpretation, and the third is from a woman’s perspective. This is how the park can be experienced – with nostalgia and wonder, but also unease. The project is also a plea for safe public space: how can we experience the beauty of nature in public areas, with real issues surrounding something seemingly as basic as public safety, especially for women?

This project combines real-world video footage of the park with computer-generated effects. Likewise, the soundtrack mixes real-world sound with treated audio and ambient music. Disconcerting audio events punctuate the soundtrack, then fades away without definite answers or fanfare. Never does the film force the viewer to come to one set conclusion or feel certain emotions.

The surrealist screen shows how places like parks can inspire creativity without restrictions, while in the other video stream, the wistful memories of a childhood in nature are expressed through spectral images of Ava as a child –  an invisible witness from the past. Simultaneously, the headlines on the centre screen depict the very real and disturbing events that have already happened at the park. Public safety is the substrate for all our activities in this beautiful space – to artistically create, and to reflect on our past.

Another feature of the installation is the concept of contrast and juxtaposition: the serene footage of the park, especially of the childhood stream playing against both the surrealist video and the messages of troubling events come and gone, becoming more severe as the film goes on. That is further compounded by the headlines fading in from shots of more natural occurrences of the water birds living obliviously, as we humans engage in our drama-filled lives.

Ava’s previous films explore a range of themes: genres and audience expectations (Genre Twist), the inhumane treatment done to those considered undeserving (Monsters, Underbelly and Then & Now), and the truth-twisting methods of reality TV (Locked Up In Lockdown). She tells these stories through emotion-packed performances and tightly-written scripts. Her films feature unorthodox editing, sharp fades and sometimes jarring blends of soundtrack and visuals.

A key feature of Ava’s work is the centrality of sound. She uses Nuendo software to create limitless overlapping sounds and disorientating effects. She combines simple and sometimes even static imagery, with dense, three-dimensional soundtracks.

Ava likes to explore different aspects of life, such as a local hospital once being a cruel workhouse years ago, the delivery company Amazon exploiting the workers behind its cheerful façade, how reality TV selects footage to manipulate its narratives, aspects of people’s identity, and here, of Queen’s Park: juxtaposing the natural, nostalgic, surreal, and disturbing.