Video 63 minutes, Orla Barry’s film work is rooted in language and symbols and is driven by the tension between visual and literary representation. Barry dwells on themes such as proximity and distance, inclusion and dislocation, silence and communication, and friendship and family relationships. Portable Stones (2005) can be seen as a fragmented narrative dealing with two characters who live in a kind of ‘linguistic isolation’ and who explore different forms of indirect communication. Barry works with the multiple meanings of words and gestures in combination with visual rhythms and subtle audio layering. This interplay makes the 63-minute film into an atmospheric, moving visual poem.