Standard Ballad 2015

Directed by Steve Bishop

Standard Ballad (2015) presents footage of the closing ceremony of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, with its central protagonist, their official mascot, Misha. The smiling inflated cartoon bear is brought into the stadium to bid farewell before ascending into the night’s sky aided by multi-coloured balloons. The crowds’ rapturous applause and anthem of ‘Farewell Moscow’ are substituted by a slowed down and pared back version of American singer/songwriter Norah Jones’ song ‘Sunrise’ For Bishop songs are always carriers of feeling. Here the title of work resonates, ‘standard ballad.’ He brings us to moments in the past, of nostalgia and being together, conjuring feelings of joy, sadness and hope, while a smiling bear rises up into the sky.