In search of lost time: Cordelia Swann, the 1980s and the use of history

This article undertakes close readings of two works by Cordelia Swann as a means of reappraising some cultural touchstones, in particular, discussion of ‘New Romantic’ film-making in British film and video during the 1980s. It examines how notions of the old and the new are displaced within Swann’s practice, altering understanding of much earlier, more distant times. By foregrounding her use of multi-source imagery and in later analysis, sound and the ‘voice’ – her personal, striking subjects create shifting conceptions of time and selfhood that affect perspective of this decade and encourage critical engagement with historiography within the moving image.