Simon Buckley

This new film captures the Barnaby Bright performance of Our Future Is Ancient, the commissioned work by Simon Buckley, who works under the name of Not Quite Light. This project began on Winter Solstice, December 21st 2019 as Simon went into Macclesfield Forest for his first trip to photograph and film the forest at first light. The original intentions for the project was that it would produce artworks for an exhibition, walk and talk in Macclesfield for Barnaby Festival 2020. This was not possible due to the lockdowns and restrictions of the coronavirus pandemic, which put elements of the Festival online and took Simon’s project into the next year.

Instead, Our Future is Ancient became a three-part series of events as part of the Barnaby Bright programme in June 2021. The one-off performance of spoken word and music inspired by the project took place in St Michael and All Angel’s Church, Macclesfield, on the summer solstice of June 19th 2021, featuring Simon Buckley with Liz Hanks (cello) and Rioghnach Connolly (flute and vocals). The entire performance can be viewed via the link below.

Art prints of selected images from the project are also available for purchase through the Not Quite Light website here