Anticipation filled the Manship Theatre on Saturday night as the audience watched for the first time to see the ending of a 22-minute video about two children living on the planet alone.The Edge of the Earth event, created by University School of Art associate professor Kelli S. Kelley, was an evening of video, music and poetry that metaphorically addressed the theme of the end of the world.The hour-long event featured a performance by several University musicians performing excerpts from Oliver Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time.” University School of Art instructor Jacqueline Dee Parker recited several of her poems, including the “Bird and Squirrel,” and Kelley’s “Bird and Squirrel” video premiered.”‘Bird and Squirrel’ is a metaphorical fairy tale which tells the story of the last girl and boy on earth,” Kelley said. “They create a bird and squirrel in an attempt to restore life to the planet.”The “Bird and Squirrel” video was a no-dialogue piece that contained music, sounds and poetry. The music and sounds were created by Bill Kelley, recording engineer for the School of Music and Culture Candy founder, a non-profit cultural and educational organization created to foster the growth of creative communities in the Greater Baton Rouge area.”The poem and music changed the film and added other dimensions that I couldn’t have imagined,” Kelley said.The boy and girl in the film were played by Sage Fuchs and Finnian Kelley, Kelley’s niece and son, and Parker’s daughter, Zoe, narrated the “Bird and Squirrel” poem in the film.”There are a lot of intimate connections between everyone in this film,” Kelley said. “I love working with artists in various disciplines.”Kelley spent three years creating the “Bird and Squirrel” video. While creating the video, Kelley contemplated the unstable balance of Earth and the serious consequences for all of nature if we continue to live oblivious to our impact.”It is our children who will inherit the problems we have created,” Kelley said. “So, having children as characters in the film seemed appropriate.”Kelley received grants from the University’s Office of Economic Research and Development, and her sponsors included the Museum of Art, the School of Art and the School of Music.”I hope the audience will come away reflecting on the experience and how the images, words and music they have experienced relate to their own lives,” Kelley said.
 
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