the trickster god

The trickster god is Matt Brooker

on occasion I have been known to display a multiplicity of hands

.Shot after dark, with a stroboscopic flash. Waving my arms while keeping my body still to ensure I remained all in one piece. Eyes closed to avoid the vagueness caused by blinking. Regret that I did not wear a blacker jumper.

i can kindle light in my shaking hands

.A quick flash committed my face and the radiator-like sides of the bridge to film; then, once again, I stood very still, hands full of Habitat flower-lights (tiny, battery- operated fairy lights), shaking them gently, while trying to keep my hands as still as possible. Same jumper: same night.

i have been known to materialise in tram stations

.A warm night, and a long wait for the tram. Stand over there and shake your head! says Matt. I shake my hands, too, and the multiple exposures write over each other so that the blurriest parts of me are also the most clear.

i can make speedlines without even moving

. This one is tricky. With the film exposed, Matt slowly swung round, trying to keep the camera as steady as possible. When he reached me, he popped the flash, catching me and the bridge and making that real, but leaving the ghostly trails of streetlights etched across the film.

i have to be careful under bridges

.Desolate shot under an underpass on a Sheffield canal. Matt finds a stain and stands me on it dissolving me through the power of double exposure. Help me, I'm melting!

i can talk to fairies

.What a palaver. The camera is on a tripod with the lens jammed open. The light is a maglight, being waved around by Matt. We don't know what the second trail is; possibly a reflection from Matt's eye, as he was dressed in non-reflective black. In this one you can see the background, as the exposure is so long; floods on Port Meadow.

i have evil tentacle hands

.Walking along a pier at night, we came upon a ghastly,abandoned ghost-train ride. It was lit up green; Matt photographed me lurching out of the shadows using available light. In the slow exposure, my hand duplicated, stretched, shuddered and became something other.

i can travel through time in a wooden canoe

.From colour to sepia in one easy step between cameras, I travelled back in time. Note my period dress. The sepia film overexposes fast, leaving the world a little burned out, but this does mean that it misses a lot of fussy modern detail. You too can travel back in time if you find the right sculpture on Brighton seafront.

cover O accidental powers O mildly enhanced O mr mavica O escape

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