Fragments of a beautiful legacy in Badwater by Jem Goulding X Gael Foucher

Artist and poetess Jem Goulding fused with confidant Gael Foucher, over ‘Badwater’; a symbolic song sent to Goulding by Speck Mountain in the hope she would make a film visual for the release. When asked to create a video for the band Goulding said she would not shoot to commission, but instead unearth some unseen 8mm footage from her personal archive; making the project one of fated synchronicity, and the unknown. Due to the personal nature of her footage; a fleeting encounter in Normandy 3 years prior, Goulding felt unable to work objectively, and passed the final direction to Foucher. Foucher insisted editor Bade Tarson use the imagery he had found on the negatives, some out takes of Goulding herself, shot by Baptiste, the boy in the film. With this experiment, Foucher transformed the piece into both documentary and fantasy, exploring his new love’s old love, with his own dimension of sensuality and mystique. The Badwater project came to light. This film has become particularly poignant as a disarming ‘life-imitating-art’ moment, when Gael Foucher died suddenly on March 17th, while Goulding was en route to see him, and the secret work he had made for her. By the time she and Speck Mountain were presented with Foucher’s heartfelt contribution, he had already been sleeping, eternally, for days.

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