David Seagrave: Have You Seen Alan?

by Alex Dunedin

Running time: 22:02 mins

David Seagrave was a person who lived his philosophy and expressed it in many ways. This film is a collection of footage, an attempt to help gather the memories of this writer and creator to continue his presence in the world. I like to think that he would be very happy with this being in the exhibition, as the footage I made was taken during long conversations when he was presenting the model trains which he made, in the 2018 Out of Sight Out of Mind exhibition.

He was always proud of being an 'Aspie'; he described himself as being someone with Asperger’s and spoke of the Aspie Community as the people he wanted to bequeath his life's work to – he was very passionate about this. He was uncompromised in the way he analysed life and I never knew him to filter anything; if he thought it, he said it – I believe this was deliberate because he felt an almost religious connection with being overtly truthful and examining life without averting our gaze.

His work is a mystery, a series of mysteries; tales told which are riddles within riddles, deadpan humour delivered to shake the very foundations of logic mixed with deep oak matured sorrow and tragedy; his conversation and monologues are unique, ornate and a different level of meta. I discovered there was a lot of reflection in everything which he said and like a puzzle, an exercise, and a curiosity. I still find interest in the dancing paths which he takes us on.

If you have eyes to see and ears to hear then this is an opportunity to learn an intricate unspoken zen poetry within his creation of form which reveals the hilarious, the cruel, the wonder-filled, brutal, spectacle of human theatre going on in and around us. I juxtapose and compliment the film with some literature on Autistic peoples and highlight some of the Asperger and Autism linked communities which are around, some of which David was a part. David will tell you the rest.

Sit down and let yourself be taken into the cascading stories of David Seagrave alive today and tomorrow in his work and words. Please write your thoughts, whatever they may be, as if you were talking directly to him – one day they will be read to the wind on the top of a lonely hill somewhere far away.