Penelope is a short semi auto-biographical film about Woolley's experience of growing up and living on a dairy farm for the majority of her life. First shown at Castlefield Gallery New Art Spaces Chester, 2024 during the pilot Chester Photo Festival alongside the objects used in the film, the written poem, and documentary images of the farm.



Penelope

I look at you
as you look at me,
as I look at you
as you look back at me.

You chew your cud
as I chew my gum
as I’m looking at you
as you’re looking at me.

I’m chewing my gum
to ease my anxiety
in this silent
sweet soliloquy.

You’re just a cow,
you’re just a number.
You’re an object
to be used.
You’re a female.

My brother named you Penelope.

I’m looking at you
as you’re looking back at me,
and as I gaze into your big, beautiful eyes,
I can’t help but question…

…that to take without asking,
without a pause,
to blindly ignore
your motherly cries in the night,
in a field where power dictates the laws.

I chew my gum to ease this anxiety
and then I say - who’s a good girl, Penelope?

Yeah, it’s you! Yeah you are!
Do you want an apple?
I bet you do. I bet you love apples!

I love your earrings!
They’re so fetching!
I had to get myself a pair,
what do ya think?

UK 161 439 400 993
or 993 for short.

I nicked ‘em out the rat room
but don’t tell the men.

So let us linger in this gaze
just you and I
the farmer’s daughter.

Let us chew our thoughts
in silent contemplation
let us plough the fields and scatter
the good seed on the nation

as I look at you
and you look back at me

993

Penelope.



Credits:

Film editing support: Benny Woo
Poetry editing support: Dr. Joel Swann