Artists' Film: Jarman Award Touring Programme 2017

Oreet Ashery, Revisiting Genesis web series, video still, 2016. Image copyright of the artist; courtesy of the artist.
Oreet Ashery, Revisiting Genesis web series, video still, 2016. Image copyright of the artist; courtesy of the artist.

Come and see a programme of deep, sharp and, at times, playful works taking on some of the biggest subjects of our times and engaging with the world around us. This year’s Jarman Award shortlist are Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Oreet Ashery, Adham Faramawy, Melanie Manchot, Charlotte Prodger and Marianna Simnett.

The 10th anniversary edition of the Jarman Award celebrates an eclectic group of artists who resist being placed in a singular, defining box. Their practices are as diverse as the field of moving image itself. Each speaks with their own voice from their own place with their own visual style.

These artists’ works are the result of sharp observation, complex intellectual and aesthetic inquiry, and depth of thought, but this does not make them devoid of humour and playfulness. They do not shy away from ‘big’ subjects, and they do so without beautifying, simplifying or turning to clichés. They touch on human fragility, the limitations and boundaries of the body, mental health, death in the digital age and the legacy we leave behind, gender stereotypes and sexuality.

Inspired by visionary filmmaker Derek Jarman, the Jarman Award recognises and supports artists working with moving image, and celebrates the spirit of experimentation, imagination and innovation in the work of artist filmmakers.

The winner of the Jarman Award will be announced on 20 November 2017 at a ceremony at the Whitechapel Gallery, and will receive a £10,000 prize. The Award is supported by Channel 4, who have commissioned each of the shortlisted artists to produce a new film for their acclaimed Random Acts arts strand.

The tour runs from 30 September to 19 November 2017 and will take place in 12 venues across the UK.

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Touring Programme 2017:

Part I:

Melanie Manchot, Out of Bounds (B), 2016, 12min

Charlotte Prodger, BRIDGIT, 2016, 32min

Adham Faramawy, Janus Collapse, 2016, 10min

Part II:

Marianna Simnett, The Needle and the Larynx, 2016, 15min

Oreet Ashery, Revisiting Genesis – Episode 2, 2016, 8min

Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Rubber Coated Steel, 2016, 22min

Melanie Manchot, Out of Bounds (A), 2016, 5min

About the Artists:

Lawrence Abu Hamdan is an artist working across audio-visual installations, performances, graphic works, photography, Islamic sermons, cassette tape compositions, essays, and lectures. Abu Hamdan’s interest with sound and its intersection with politics originate from his background in DIY music. He has made audio analyses for legal investigations at the UK asylum Tribunal and advocacy for organisations such as Amnesty International and Defence for Children International.

Oreet Ashery is an interdisciplinary visual artist with unorthodox, multi-layered and eclectic practice spanning photography, moving image, mass-produced and unique artefacts, text, music, workshops and performance. Ashery’s work confronts ideological, social and gender constructions within the fabric of personal and broader contemporary realities.

Adham Faramawy is a London based artist working across moving image, sculptural installation and print. Faramawy often draws on the language of advertising, co-opting the special effects used to evoke desire for people, things and experiences. The artist combines these seductive devices of brilliance, slipperiness, morphing and repetition with his own interest in the transgressive aesthetics of 'body horror', found in manga and anime, as well as cult classic such as Cronenberg's Videodrome (1983).

Melanie Manchot is a London-based visual artist working across photography, moving image and installation. Her long-standing areas of enquiry range from portraiture to participation and performance, to questions of individual and collective identities, and to the exploration of the very particular socio-economic and ecological microclimate of a specific alpine mountain and its community. Situated at the threshold between the documentary and staged events, Manchot’s work frequently involves an engagement with strangers.

Charlotte Prodger is a Glasgow based artist working with moving image across the ever-evolving formats that are inextricably bound to the autobiographical content of her work. Previous works combine video taken from YouTube with spoken text taken from internet forums and personal emails. The equipment used to play audio and video content is a vital part of Prodger’s work: Most recently, she has been making longer single screen works such as BRIDGIT, 2016, and Stoneymollan Trail, 2015.

Marianna Simnett is a London based artist working with moving image, installation and performance. In the most recent work, she treats her own body as one might play with their online avatar given the ephemerality and flexibility of its digital presentation. In The Needle and the Larynx, 2016, her voice is surgically lowered with Botox whilst she recites a grim parable about gender, nature and artifice.

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