Birds Fly Low

Birds Fly Low is a re-imagining of the story of K.V.M, whose identity remains unknown, but whose history and initials Elgar has been able to discover through a box of sewing items, (bought as part of a larger job lot on an online auction site), and the archive of photographs and objects contained within it. The wooden box was filled with various sewing paraphernalia and was advertised as a possible ‘restoration project’, as part of the lining was damaged. Hidden under a mass of threads was a small pamphlet with makeshift instructions on how to make a spy balloon, as well as several sketchy notes, blurred photographs, a defaced family portrait, and faded receipts from a store in Cromarty, Scotland. Other identifying markers included a prescription for Thorazine, a drug that was first administered in the 1950s as a treatment for anxiety, psychosis, and occasionally, agoraphobia.

As Elgar searched for more information about the life of K.V.M, she discovered that the airfield at Evanton (close to Cromarty) was significant as one of several launch sites for Project Genetrix, a 1950s programme run by the US government to collect intelligence as part of Cold War operations. Surveillance balloons, purporting to be meteorological devices, were flown over China, Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, with over one hundred balloons launched from Evanton in 1956. Local speculation mounted, as hardware was transported in large trucks to the site. Only one balloon survived the crossing over the Soviet Union into the recovery zone, and a thousand photo frames were retrieved. Several years later, Genetrix film, taken from balloons that landed in the Soviet Union, would play a key part in the ‘Space Race’, as the Soviets discovered the film’s radiation resistance. Genetrix film was subsequently used in the Soviet Union’s Luna 3 Space Mission of 1959, providing the first photographs of the far side of the moon.

Elgar was unable to discover further identifying details about K.V.M. However, several questions remain. Was K.V.M confined to their home due to illness? Did they make a homespun spy balloon in an attempt to explore and document their surroundings beyond the limitations of home? Or were they perhaps an amateur science enthusiast, equipped with speculative reconnaissance knowledge of Project Genetrix? This fragile photographic archive of documentary mementoes, in the form of blurred images taken by a spy balloon, hidden within a box, is a possible testament to that. Birds Fly Low, (the title of which is taken from one of several scribbled notes found within the box), presents a re- telling of this story, re-visited and photographed decades later.