The Masque of Blackness

A hand-drawn animated short film by artist Epoh Beech inspired by Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness and Ben Jonson’s Jacobean play The Masque of Blackness, exploring the spirit of place to take you on a journey from West Africa to the Thames.

More than 7 years in the making, Epoh Beech's hand-drawn animation featuring an original musical score by Esben Tjalve and choreography by Julia Gillespie evoke a sense of place and spirit in the busy heart of London as they are projected onto the National Theatre flytower.

Epoh Beech studied as a fine artist in Florence, at Cheltenham Art School and Chelsea College of Art. She has an MA in Art Therapy from the University of Hertfordshire and works out of the ACAVA studios in West London. She has completed five major series of works, each follow a journey, tell a story, and illustrate a particular poem or Jacobean “Masque”. Each has been exhibited in either London or Oxford. The work is strongly influenced by the narrative force and the quest for the sublime through the balance of colour and light most evident in the work of 15th Italian Renaissance and German Romantic painters.