Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
University of Wolverhampton
Film in Space
Description
This is the first gallery exhibition of its kind to take place in the UK. Curated in a unique and proactive way by the artist at the invitation of the gallery (former artist/curators include Tacita Dean, Simon Starling).
Established works of live 16mm expanded cinema (Filmaktion, Welsby, Sherwin) shown in their originating medium, adapted to the spaces of the gallery. Placed alongside contemporary developments in the field (Hamlyn) including site-specific commissions (Reynolds).
Exhibition foregrounds work of significant artists from the 1970s (Nicolson, Farrer) whose medium of 16mm film has received restricted exposure.
Rationale
The exhibition is a major contribution to the field of expanded cinema at a time of increased debate (BFI /Tate conferences 2010/2011; Expanded Cinema: Film, Art, Performance, pub. Tate 2011).
Focusing on the work of UK artists, the exhibition is of international significance in the unique way it re-positions expanded cinema within the gallery context.
Builds on the work of post-digital film exhibitions (Into the Light, Whitney Museum, New York 2001; X-Screen, MUMOK, Vienna 2004).
Investigates formal and aesthetic possibilities for expanded cinema as an art form adapted or designed for the spaces of the gallery. Pedagogic beauty in the open display of materials of film.
Demonstrates the viability of 16mm film exhibition at a time of critical reaction to digital hegemony (FILM, Dean, Tate 2011).
Strategies
Seven gallery rooms each given specific emphasis (material practice, sound/film, text/film), demonstrating breadth and complexity of the field.
Three rooms undergo changeovers mid-exhibition to bring in further works and viewers.
Interactive ‘hands-on’ display stresses physical materiality of film/projection, providing opportunity for insights into the moving image to a ‘post-internet’ generation.
Artist/curator’s 20 page illustrated publication (File Note #75) foregrounds the working processes of participating artists.
Series of weekly talks/live presentations (Rees, Henderson, Nicolson) raise issues regarding film/digital, performance/installation, finite/infinite exhibition duration.
