December 15, 2021Nadine Mckenzie created ‘A Will, My Wheels, and a Way’ as part of their Vital Capacities residency in 2021
We are delivering a month-long online residency exchange in collaboration with Videotage in Hong Kong as part of videoclub and Videotage’s seventh Both Sides Now programme. Residencies will take place on videoclub’s Vital Capacities virtual residency space: vitalcapacities.com and on Videotage’s Minecraft residency. Residencies will take place in February 2022. Deadline for submissions is: 12 January 2022.
The programme invites applications for the residency from disabled, D/deaf and Neurodivergent artists based in Brighton & Hove. There are 2 opportunities available, with fees of £1,000 for participation plus £500 of production costs. There are additional access support budgets available, which can be organised depending on requirements. Residencies are part-time only and can be worked around your schedule.
Work produced will be exhibited as part of Third Thursdays and as part of an exhibition on Vital Capacities’ website. It may also be included in screenings in the UK and Hong Kong.
Both Sides Now 7’s theme is environmentalism. We invite applicants to consider how they might explore this theme through their residency and work. It might help to look at previous residencies on Vital Capacities to see how others have approached their work.
Both Sides Now is a tactical programme partnership between Videotage (HK) and videoclub (UK). Which uses contemporary and historical film and video work to explore developments within the culture and society of Hong Kong, China, and the UK, and beyond.
About Third Thursdays
Third Thursdays is a new arts, music and culture programme that aims to make the centre of Brighton more vibrant, through events, performances, film projections and new artwork commissions. It will create moments each third Thursday of the month, beginning on 16 December, for residents and visitors to engage with art and culture around the centre of Brighton.
Third Thursdays will be an opportunity to showcase creative work for people to participate in, including exhibition openings, events, music performances and film projections.
Our director, Jamie Wyld, has written a blog post about Third Thursdays on 16 December – get an insight into this month’s theme and some background to artworks in the programme, click here to read.
To find out more about Third Thursdays, go to the website by clicking here.
December 10, 2021Dynasty Handbag, Vat Do You Vahnt For Bwekfas?, 2016
Third Thursdays – a monthly opportunity to see, experience and take part in art, music and culture.
Third Thursdays is a new arts, music and culture programme that aims to make the centre of Brighton more vibrant, through events, performances, film projections and new artwork commissions. It will create moments each third Thursday of the month, beginning on 16 December between 5 and 7pm, for residents and visitors to engage with art and culture around the centre of Brighton.
Third Thursdays will be an opportunity to showcase creative work for people to participate in, including exhibition openings, events, music performances and film projections.
Third Thursdays is part of the ABCD Cultural Recovery Plan, supported by Arts Council England, Brighton & Hove City Council, Brilliant Brighton Business Improvement District, Pebble Trust and the Welcome Back Fund (European Regional Development Fund).
Call out for stewards – paid opportunity
We’re looking for people who would be willing to be stewards and help support the delivery of Third Thursdays. To work with us to deliver our outdoor walking film trail, support musicians and to oversee films in windows. May require a little light lifting.
Date: 16 December, between 2pm and 9pm. £10 an hour plus expenses.
If you are interested, email Jamie Wyld at: jamie@videoclub.org.uk
About ABCD Cultural Recovery Plan
The disruption of the pandemic brought together over 100 creatives in Brighton & Hove to explore how arts & culture can be more inclusive, sustainable and collaborative in the City in the future. This resulted in a recovery plan that runs to the end of 2022 and has so far raised over £350k for the cultural sector in the City. The plan is overseen by an independent group of people formed of a Governance Group and a series of Working Groups. Our aims are to create paid work and professional opportunities for creative workers in the City, to develop a more inclusive cultural offer and to encourage partnership working to strengthen the creative sector in the long term.
Our partners include Brighton & Hove City Council, Arts Council England, Brilliant Brighton Business Improvement District, the Pebble Trust and many funded arts organisations in the City. If you work in the creative industries and want to get involved and/or find out more visitcultureinourcity.com
In October 21, we participated in SPARK Festival 21, delivered by British Council Hong Kong. We presented Both Sides Now: Queer – a programme of films and two panel discussions. The two talks are now available to watch:
Panel discussion led by Lucia King (Researcher, curator and lecturer in Moving Image, University of Brighton, UK) with artists Rob Crosse (UK) and Nicole Pun (HK). Crosse and Pun took part in international exchange residencies with Both Sides Now in 2019. Find out more about the panelists by clicking here.
Panel discussion led by Jia Tan (Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong) with artists Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley (UK) and Beatrice Wong (HK). Find out more about the panelists by clicking here.
Talks took place as part of SPARK Festival 21, delivered by British Council Hong Kong in partnership with videoclub and Videotage.
Both Sides Nowis a tactical program that uses film and video to explore culture and society between different nations, the UK, Hong Kong, and beyond. It is delivered annually by videoclub and Videotage.
October 12, 2021Matt Lambert, God is Watching, 2017 (courtesy of the artist, Tate and Random Acts)
videoclub and Videotage present Both Sides Now: Queer as part of SPARK Festival 2021, delivered by British Council Hong Kong.
Join filmmakers from the UK and Hong Kong to explore aspects of LGBTQI+ life, reflecting upon Queer identity, life and creativity.
Both Sides Now: Queer features eight short films (available to stream on-demand between 20-23 October during SPARK) and two accompanying panel talks, looking at the way in which filmmakers are exploring Queer culture, using various film and video techniques to explore aspects of Queer life in Hong Kong and the UK.
See the full programme and book talks for SPARK 2021 now on British Council’s website.
Film programme
Anson Mak, Differences Do Matter, 1998, 3 mins Ming Wong, Learn German with Petra Von Kant, 2017, 8 mins Jay Bernard, Something Said, 2017, 7:33 mins Matt Lambert, God is Watching, 2017, 3:24 mins Lucie Rachel, Where We Are Now, 2016, 9:29 mins Rob Crosse, Dear Samuel, 2019, 9:30 mins Nicole Pun, To be Brandon (Scene 1), 2019, 4:06 mins Nicole Pun, To be Brandon (Scene 2), 2019, 6:58 mins
Film programme will be available to watch between 20 and 23 October. Visit the website to watch during those dates. Watch the film programme by clicking here.
Talks programme
Talks can be booked now on the British Council website by clicking here. Find out more about the speakers in the programme by clicking here.
Date and time: 22 October at 11am UK (6pm HK)
Participants: Rob Crosse (artist, UK)), Nicole Pun (artist, HK), Lucia King (moderator, UK)
Panellists will discuss what sector support is needed and available for LGBTQ+ artists and filmmakers, and where best practice exists. Led by Lucia King (Researcher, curator and lecturer in Moving Image, University of Brighton, UK) with artists Rob Crosse (UK) and Nicole Pun (HK). Crosse and Pun took part in international exchange residencies with Both Sides Now in 2019.
Date and time: 23 October at 9am UK time (4pm HK)
Participants: Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley (artist, UK), Beatrice Wong (artist, HK), Jia Tan (moderator, HK)
Panellists will discuss how Trans artists and filmmakers can be supported better, what challenges there are and what the sector needs to do to support Trans makers. Led by Jia Tan (Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong) with artists Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley (UK) and Beatrice Wong (HK).
Register now on the British Council website by clicking here. Learn more about the speakers in the programme by clicking here.
Both Sides Now is a tactical program that uses film and video to explore culture and society between different nations, the UK, Hong Kong, and beyond. It is delivered annually by videoclub and Videotage.
October 11, 2021Panellists from top left (22 Oct): Lucia King, Nicole Pun, Rob Crosse. And from bottom left (23 Oct): Jia Tan, Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley, Beatrice Wong.
Participants: Rob Crosse (artist, UK)), Nicole Pun (artist, HK), Lucia King (moderator, UK)
Panellists will discuss what sector support is needed and available for LGBTQ+ artists and filmmakers, and where best practice exists. Led by Lucia King (Researcher, curator and lecturer in Moving Image, University of Brighton, UK) with artists Rob Crosse (UK) and Nicole Pun (HK). Crosse and Pun took part in international exchange residencies with Both Sides Now in 2019.
Register now on the British Council website by clicking here.
Rob Crosse is a filmmaker and photographer born 1985 in Hertfordshire, UK, studied Photography at the Arts University Bournemouth and completed his MFA in Fine Arts at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. He was a participant in the Berlin Programme for Artists BPA from 2019 to 2020. In 2020 he was awarded the Ars Viva Prize along with Sung Tieu and Richard Sides.
His recent solo and group exhibitions include Ars Viva 2020 Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, DE, Bad Bodies at Tomorrow Maybe, Eaton, HK and Solo Presentations, Jerwood, London, UK. His films have been shown as part of Lafayette Anticipations, Foundation d’entreprise Galeries Lafayette, Paris, FR; Video Art at Midnight, Babylon Cinema, Berlin, DE; Queer: Both Sides Now V, Videotage, HK; Different Ways, Lux, London, UK; and Transactions of Desire, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK,among others. He has completed residencies as part of videoclub and Videotage Both Sides Now, at Eaton, HK; Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Nebraska, US; Katara Art Center, Doha, QA and Foundation Marcelino Botin, Santander, ES.
Nicole Punis a visual artist based in Hong Kong. She uses photography, video, performance to explore queer identity, desire and female representation. She received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts. She has a BSSc from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with a background in Journalism and Communication. Her work has been exhibited in Circus Gallery in Los Angeles; Avenue 50 Studio in Los Angeles; SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco; McGroarty Arts Center in Tujunga; “In & Out” Nicole Pun Solo Exhibition at Lumenvisum in Hong Kong. Her work is in numerous private and museum collections. She is the recipient of several grants and awards, including Yale-China Arts Fellowship at Yale University, WMA Masters Special Mention Award.
Lucía King is a researcher and curator; and as an artist working in drawing, painting and installation. She is engaged as a researcher of artists’ moving image. King acquired a PhD from SOAS Centre for Media and Film (University of London) specialising in the creative methodologies of South Asian artists’ filmmakers and experimental documentary filmmakers. King is also curator of artists’ moving image and, in 2014, she founded VisionMix, an artist-led professional network of artists, filmmakers and curators that operates transnationally.
Date and time: 23 October at 9am UK time (4pm HK)
Participants: Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley (artist, UK), Beatrice Wong (artist, HK), Jia Tan (moderator, HK)
Panellists will discuss how Trans artists and filmmakers can be supported better, what challenges there are and what the sector needs to do to support Trans makers. Led by Jia Tan (Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong) with artists Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley (UK) and Beatrice Wong (HK).
Register now on the British Council website by clicking here.
Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley creates work that seeks to archive the Black Trans experience, “using technology to imagine our lives in environments that centre our bodies.”
They work predominantly in animation, sound, performance and video games, intertwining lived experience with fiction to record the lives of Black Trans people and imaginatively retell Black Trans stories.
Beatrice Wong, born 1980 in HK and based in HK ever since, is a transgender outsider artist with a lifelong struggle with mental issues. Wong expresses her dilemmas in life through personal creative projects and mediums including stand-up comedy. Contributing to the LGBTQ anthology ‘Intimate Strangers: True Stories from Queer Asia’, short films screened at various LGBTQIA film festivals around the globe, and recently, photography with her WMA Masters finalist work ‘No Opportunities (for Beatrice)’ being exhibited in Hong Kong City Hall. Beatrice also DJs as Misty Penguin.
Jia Tan is Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her doctoral degree in critical studies of cinema and television from the University of Southern California.
Her research on digital media, feminism, queer culture. Currently, she serves as an Associate Member for Institute for Transpacific Cultural Research, Simon Fraser University, Canada. She is also on the editorial board of Communication, Culture, and Critique, one of the journals affiliated with the International Communication Association (ICA).
Find out more and register on the British Council website by clicking here.
Both Sides Now is a tactical program that uses film and video to explore culture and society between different nations, the UK, Hong Kong, and beyond. It is delivered annually by videoclub and Videotage.
September 29, 2021All four artists’ work, beginning bottom right clockwise: Nadine Mckenzie, A Will, My Wheels and a Way, 2021; …kruse, Directionsgreat to Storyplace, 2021; Siphenathi Mayekiso, Echoes of Identity, 2021; artwork still, Ecologies of Belonging (a Meditation in Progress) by Rebekah Ubuntu, courtesy of the Artist. Find Rebekah online @rebekahubuntu.
In August 2021, we worked with four artists-in-residence on Vital Capacities, two from South Africa, Siphenathi Mayekiso and Nadine Mckenzie, and two from the UK, …kruse and Rebekah Ubuntu. All four artists were invited to research and explore ideas, and to share them during the residency. Each artist has produced work that resonates with the work they did throughout the residency, reflecting on memory, personal narratives, experience, and movement. See the exhibition: vitalcapacities.com
Siphenathi Mayekiso has created a poetic movement storytelling film, which takes the viewer on a journey, reflecting on our perception of what we think others see when they look at us. Echoes of Identity is a personal interrogation using the body to build a dialogue about the self.
Nadine Mckenzie’s film, A Will, My Wheels and a Way is a powerful personal narrative that reflects on the car accident which led to Mckenzie being paralysed. The film brings together memories, interviews with family and friends, and interpretive dance to portray Mckenzie’s close connection to her wheelchair.
…kruse’s residency resulted in two works, Stumpsoft to Hungerdream and Directionsgreat to Storyplace, which came out of …kruse’s investigation into her relationship with paths and walking. Both works contain what …kruse describes as word drawings, poetic wanderings and meanderings over old and new paths.
Rebekah Ubuntu decided to focus on reflecting and taking pause during their residency; reading and meditating on Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ book Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals. Ubuntu has created Ecologies of Belonging (a Meditation in Progress) in response to their time in residence.
August’s programme was delivered in partnership with Institute for Creative Arts – University of Cape Town and Wysing Arts Centre. With support from Arts Council England.
Vital Capacities is an accessible, purpose-built digital residency space, that supports artists’ practice while engaging audiences with their work.
Vital Capacities has been created by videoclub in consultation with artists, digital inclusion specialist Sarah Pickthall and website designer Oli Pyle.
September 1, 2021Still from Hibernation Dream, Zara Sands, 2021 – courtesy of the artist.
An office worker attempts hibernating in a remote forest. With her eyes closed she dreams, hearing recorded sounds of wild animals. Her dream soon becomes a nightmare as she turns into a distortion of the wild animal she once dreamed of.
videoclub presents Hibernation Dream, a solo exhibition by Zara Sands during 1-30 September 21 on our website. This exhibition premieres her film, Hibernation Dream, a collaborative project with composer, Will Chaffey.
A text visually describing the film can be downloaded here for blind and partially sighted audiences: Descriptive transcript of the film
About the film
Hibernation Dream was born out of artistic research between the film’s dancer/director and the composer, Zara Sands and Will Chaffey. The aim was to explore the use of subjective and interpretive ideas to set objective criteria. Specifically looking at the concept of what is ‘natural’ and the experience of trying to fulfil this in modern life.
The film investigates raw and impulsive ways of expressing this through movement and sound. Sands proceeded to create a film that structured improvised movement with distorted performed sound. Through filmmaking, she sought to build a bizarre illustration of these experiences expressed using her and Chaffey’s perspectives.
Exhibition dates
Hibernation Dream will be showing between 1 Sept till 30 Sept 2021.
Online workshops
Along with the exhibition, Hibernation Dream will present two online workshops between 16-17 September. Extending from Sands’s research, the workshop explores how our idiosyncrasies and subjective experiences of the world manifest through the expression of sound and dance. Visit links below for details about the workshops.
This is an accessible video which functions as an open improvisation guide, while also being interpretable as a spoken description of the performance. The text is an original score created following the project’s movement research and was used while performing in front of the camera for the film.
Before watching and responding, ensure you are fixed in a comfortable position and that there are no obstructions within your area of movement. This video can be used with the film’s sound, with your own choice of sound or your imagination. Feel free to prepare yourself with a blanket if this suits your preference.
Please give your feedback to the artist about her work through this feedback form:
About the artist
Zara Sands is a London and South-East based artist working with dance, film and sound. Having a broad spanning practice as a creative, that is informed by Sands’s research into one’s body and movement vocabularies, she is interested in using material from the body that births the thought being expressed. She enjoys using this to develop, stretch and challenge idiosyncratic movement vocabularies.
With thanks to Screen South & Jamie Wyld for their help initiating the project. Hibernation Dream is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Further down the page you can watch the films individually.
Selected 11 brings together some of the best work from early career film and video artists from across the UK in a vibrant programme of recent artists’ moving image. The nominators for this year’s programme of Selected (and the artists shortlisted for the Jarman Award in 2020) are: Michelle Williams Gamaker, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings, Jenn Nkiru, Project Art Works, Larissa Sansour and Andrea Luka Zimmerman.
The artists for the 11th programme of Selected are: River Cao, Sam Grant, Aoibheann Greenan, Katayoun Jalilipour, Roxy Rezvany and Gaby Sahhar.
Screening and exhibitions of programme online
Selected 11 will be showing across the UK with partners throughout 23-29 August 2021, including online with Nottingham Contemporary, Spike Island (Bristol), Phoenix (Leicester) and a live screening at Fabrica Gallery (Brighton) on 2 September. The programme will be available on our site during 23-29 August.
In conversation with artists with Nottingham Contemporary on 25 August
An in conversation with artists Aoibheann Greenan, Katayoun Jalilipour and Roxy Rezvany talking with Ian Haydn Smith (editor of Curzon Magazine) will launch online on 25 August at 6:30pm. Watch the talk by clicking here.
In conversation with artists with Spike Island on 26 August
An in conversation with artists River Cao, Sam Grant and Gaby Sahhar talking with Ian Haydn Smith (editor of Curzon Magazine) will take place live online on 26 August at 6pm. Watch the talk by clicking here.
Book a ticket for Fabrica screening on 2 Sept
Screening at Fabrica Gallery, Brighton on 2 September at 6:30pm. Tickets are £3. To book a ticket for Fabrica, click here. Address: Fabrica Gallery, 40 Duke Street, Brighton BN1 1AG. How to get to Fabrica.
Below you can watch individual works from the Selected 11 programme.
Gaby Sahhar, Truth and Kinship, 2020
Truth and Kinship is shot in Tower Hamlets, Canary Wharf and Isle of Dogs. Steeped in history as one of the largest ports for trade in the UK this is a landscape determined by extreme wealth divides, aggressive property development and finance. Narrated by a disembodied, genderless voice that recounts memories speaking of pain, longing and desire we watch three young people from diverse backgrounds navigate this hostile space in their quest for social mobility. The main protagonist, a suited white male uses his privilege to explore his sexual identity, fetishising queerness at the expense of others. Limited by his homophobia he resumes a life of heteronormativity and access to capital having delved to far into queer subculture. The film considers the different daily realities the characters encounter in public space. Hierarchical and in a state of perpetual mutation Truth and Kinship questions how the city adapts to serve the capitalist male identity to the detriment of others.
Sam Grant, Final Poetic, 2020
Shot over three days in Norfolk, Final Poetic is an impressionistic moving image piece of the British north. It aims to reframe the image of the natural world away from the literality of its geography and into the subjective experience of rural England. Beyond the realms of objective representation there is an internal space that we project outward onto the canvas of the world. It is the ambition of this film to portray just one of those potentially limitless impressions.
River Cao, River is My Hometown, 2021
River is My Hometown is an elegy, an elegy for Cao.
River is My Hometown is driven by a strong sense of loss. When Cao faces the loss of his hometown following the disaster of the flood and the question of his identity, he tries to build his own language space to re-translate his subjective emotions. The traditional mourning ceremony of his hometown “plead for water” becomes a key clue — an entrance into the self-language space. It substantiates his sad thoughts and returns him as a revenant to a hometown that transcends the geographic concept.
Aoibheann Greenan, Dingbox, 2020
Dingbox by Aoibheann Greenan draws on the internet phenomenon of unboxing videos, pushing the format’s haptic qualities to elicit its strangely seductive power. Dingbox performs the unboxing dynamic as burlesque, stretching the narrative structure to its logical extreme. The film loops indefinitely, mimicking the cycle of production-consumption built on hidden labour and discarded waste.
Katayoun Jalilipour, Soosk, 2021
Soosk explores a queer utopian rewriting of a traditional Iranian children’s story named ‘Khale Sooske’, which originally follows a female cockroach’s hunt for a husband whilst normalising domestic violence. This retelling, ‘Soosk’, follows the journey of a cockroach who survives gender-based violence and finds a queer safe haven with the help of a non-binary divine being. Very importantly, Soosk revisits the trauma that sexist and abusive rhetoric in children’s stories contribute to, especially for queer people. Soosk is a fictional fantasy about queer euphoria, and the freedom queerness offers from the struggles under hetero-patriarchy.
Roxy Rezvany, Wifi Rider, 2020
Life is lonely for young Palestinian, Shukri. He spends his days on the internet, immersed in a world where Western popstars preach self-love and unity, and where he can forget the lack of acceptance he faces ineveryday life. But a life dreaming of paradise abroad does not bode well for a teenager stuck in EastJerusalem. What he desperately wants is to connect with others like him, who feel caught between anoccupation, globalisation, and the universal growing pains that come with adulthood. In this 16mm documentary film, we follow Shukri from a childhood in East Jerusalem to moving to the hillside apartmentsof Amman, Jordan and the sandy shores of the Dead Sea. We discover the origins of his life as the Wifi Rider, and how he channelled his frustrations into art on the internet.
Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) was launched in 2005 as a one-stop resource to provide artists working in the moving image with access to funding, guidance and development opportunities. Through unique commissioning funds, FLAMIN has commissioned over 150 productions, and supported the careers of countless other artists with programmes of one-to-one advice sessions, residencies and workshops.
August 4, 2021Roxy Rezvany, Wifi Rider, 2020 – courtesy of the artist
Selected brings together some of the best work from early career film and video artists from across the UK in a vibrant programme of recent artists’ moving image.
Book a ticket for Fabrica screening on 2 Sept
Screening at Fabrica Gallery, Brighton on 2 September at 6:30pm. Tickets are £3. To book a ticket for Fabrica, click here. Address: Fabrica Gallery, 40 Duke Street, Brighton BN1 1AG. How to get to Fabrica.
The Selected programme was established 11 years ago with the aims of supporting artist filmmakers to gain greater visibility and to bring new, diverse moving image work to audiences. Each year the artists who are shortlisted for the Film London Jarman Award nominate artists who are earlier in their careers and from those nominations a programme is curated by videoclub and Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN).
The nominators for this year’s programme of Selected (and the artists shortlisted for the Jarman Award in 2020) are: Michelle Williams Gamaker, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings, Jenn Nkiru, Project Art Works, Larissa Sansour and Andrea Luka Zimmerman.
The artists for the 11th programme of Selected are: River Yuhao Cao, Sam Grant, Aoibheann Greenan, Katayoun Jalilipour, Roxy Rezvany and Gaby Sahhar.
Screening and exhibitions of programme online
Selected 11 was shown across the UK with partners throughout 23-29 August 2021, including online with Nottingham Contemporary, Spike Island (Bristol), Phoenix (Leicester) and a live screening at Fabrica Gallery (Brighton) on 2 September. The programme was available on our site during 23-29 August.
In conversation with artists with Nottingham Contemporary on 25 August
An in conversation with artists Aoibheann Greenan, Katayoun Jalilipour and Roxy Rezvany talking with Ian Haydn Smith (editor of Curzon Magazine) launched online on 25 August at 6:30pm. An archive of the talk can be watched. Watch the talk by clicking here.
In conversation with artists with Spike Island on 26 August
An in conversation with artists River Cao, Sam Grant and Gaby Sahhar talking with Ian Haydn Smith (editor of Curzon Magazine) took place on 26 August at 6pm. An archive of the talk can be watched. Watch the talk by clicking here.
Programme of work:
Gaby Sahhar, Truth and Kinship, 2020, 9:26 mins
Roxy Rezvany, Wifi Rider, 2020, 13 mins
River Yuhao Cao, River is My Hometown, 2021, 8:05 mins
Gaby Sahhar, Truth and Kinship, 2020 – courtesy of the artist
Gaby Sahhar, Truth and Kinship, 2020
Truth and Kinship is shot in Tower Hamlets, Canary Wharf and Isle of Dogs. Steeped in history as one of the largest ports for trade in the UK this is a landscape determined by extreme wealth divides, aggressive property development and finance. Narrated by a disembodied, genderless voice that recounts memories speaking of pain, longing and desire we watch three young people from diverse backgrounds navigate this hostile space in their quest for social mobility. The main protagonist, a suited white male uses his privilege to explore his sexual identity, fetishising queerness at the expense of others. Limited by his homophobia he resumes a life of heteronormativity and access to capital having delved to far into queer subculture. The film considers the different daily realities the characters encounter in public space. Hierarchical and in a state of perpetual mutation Truth and Kinship questions how the city adapts to serve the capitalist male identity to the detriment of others.
Roxy Rezvany, Wifi Rider, 2020 – courtesy of the artist
Roxy Rezvany, Wifi Rider, 2020
Life is lonely for young Palestinian, Shukri. He spends his days on the internet, immersed in a world where Western popstars preach self-love and unity, and where he can forget the lack of acceptance he faces ineveryday life. But a life dreaming of paradise abroad does not bode well for a teenager stuck in EastJerusalem. What he desperately wants is to connect with others like him, who feel caught between anoccupation, globalisation, and the universal growing pains that come with adulthood. In this 16mm documentary film, we follow Shukri from a childhood in East Jerusalem to moving to the hillside apartmentsof Amman, Jordan and the sandy shores of the Dead Sea. We discover the origins of his life as the Wifi Rider, and how he channelled his frustrations into art on the internet.
River Yuhao Cao, River is My Hometown, 2021 – courtesy of the artist
River Yuhao Cao, River is My Hometown, 2021
River is My Hometown is an elegy, an elegy for Cao.
River is My Hometown is driven by a strong sense of loss. When Cao faces the loss of his hometown following the disaster of the flood and the question of his identity, he tries to build his own language space to re-translate his subjective emotions. The traditional mourning ceremony of his hometown “plead for water” becomes a key clue — an entrance into the self-language space. It substantiates his sad thoughts and returns him as a revenant to a hometown that transcends the geographic concept.
Aoibheann Greenan, Dingbox, 2020 – courtesy of the artist
Aoibheann Greenan, Dingbox, 2020
Dingbox by Aoibheann Greenan draws on the internet phenomenon of unboxing videos, pushing the format’s haptic qualities to elicit its strangely seductive power. Dingbox performs the unboxing dynamic as burlesque, stretching the narrative structure to its logical extreme. The film loops indefinitely, mimicking the cycle of production-consumption built on hidden labour and discarded waste.
Katayoun Jalilipour, Soosk, 2021 – courtesy of the artist
Katayoun Jalilipour, Soosk, 2021
Soosk explores a queer utopian rewriting of a traditional Iranian children’s story named ‘Khale Sooske’, which originally follows a female cockroach’s hunt for a husband whilst normalising domestic violence. This retelling, ‘Soosk’, follows the journey of a cockroach who survives gender-based violence and finds a queer safe haven with the help of a non-binary divine being. Very importantly, Soosk revisits the trauma that sexist and abusive rhetoric in children’s stories contribute to, especially for queer people. Soosk is a fictional fantasy about queer euphoria, and the freedom queerness offers from the struggles under hetero-patriarchy.
Sam Grant, Final Poetic, 2020 – courtesy of the artist
Sam Grant, Final Poetic, 2020
Shot over three days in Norfolk, Final Poetic is an impressionistic moving image piece of the British north. It aims to reframe the image of the natural world away from the literality of its geography and into the subjective experience of rural England. Beyond the realms of objective representation there is an internal space that we project outward onto the canvas of the world. It is the ambition of this film to portray just one of those potentially limitless impressions.
Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) was launched in 2005 as a one-stop resource to provide artists working in the moving image with access to funding, guidance and development opportunities. Through unique commissioning funds, FLAMIN has commissioned over 150 productions, and supported the careers of countless other artists with programmes of one-to-one advice sessions, residencies and workshops.
Nominated by the artists shortlisted for the Jarman Award 2020, Selected is a collection of diverse, surprising and provocative new film by early career artists from across the UK. Selected 11 includes work by: River Cao, Sam Grant, Aoibheann Greenan, Katayoun Jalilipour, Roxy Rezvany and Gaby Sahhar. Here you can read about each artists in this programme:
River Cao
River Yuhao Cao, River is My Hometown, 2021 – courtesy of the artist
River Cao is a London-based Chinese artist working with performance and moving image. He finished his MA at the Royal College of Art – CAP (Moving Image) in 2021. River’s works are deeply rooted in his environment and memories of his hometown – a small town by the river in southern China. Using mourning as a method, he creates a series of self-focused narrative spaces to rethink the emotion of grief. His work attempts to relieve his inner sense of loss, which is rooted in a desire for tranquility and fantasy.
Sam Grant
Sam Grant, Final Poetic, 2020 – courtesy of the artist
Sam Grant is an artist based in Solihull, who primarily uses the mediums of photography and video to explore themes related to his own experiences with autism. His work includes abstract depictions of sensory issues, social isolation and emotional processing in the attempt to convey the feelings experienced by an individual on the spectrum to a neurotypical audience.
Aoibheann Greenan
Aoibheann Greenan, Dingbox, 2020 – courtesy of the artist
Aoibheann Greenan is an Irish artist exploring the confluence of matter and psyche in the post-digital landscape. Her work has recently been selected for New Contemporaries 2021. Greenan’s work has been presented at The Starr Cinema, Tate Modern; DRAF, London; Raven Row, London; KW Institute, Berlin; Import Projects, Berlin; IMMA, Dublin; Project Arts Centre, Dublin; Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin; EVA International, Limerick; The RHA, Dublin. Greenan is co-founder of artist collective East London Cable.
Katayoun Jalilipour
Katayoun Jalilipour, Soosk, 2021 – courtesy of the artist
Katayoun Jalilipour is an Iranian born multidisciplinary artist, performer and writer based in the UK. They often use their body as the subject to explore race, gender identity and sexuality, through humourous storytelling, using a variety of mediums such as digital image-making, gifs, video and live performance. They are currently an associate lecturer on BA Performance: Design and Practice at Central Saint Martins.
Roxy Rezvany
Roxy Rezvany, Wifi Rider, 2020 – courtesy of the artist
Roxy Rezvany is an award-winning British filmmaker whose work aims to expand perceptions of British identity, and bring marginalised narratives to the mainstream. In 2018, she was recognised by The Dots as a Creative Trailblazer, featured in It’s Nice That’s Creative Review, and was on the cover of Broadcast Magazine’s ‘Hot Shots’ magazine issue. Her debut film Little Pyongyang premiered in competition at CPH:Dox Festival, and was the recipient of awards including Best Director at Underwire Film Festival and Best Documentary at The Smalls Film Festival. She has directed films for the BBC, Victoria Miro, VICE and The Guardian.
Gaby Sahhar
Gaby Sahhar, Truth and Kinship, 2020 – courtesy of the artist
Gaby Sahhar is a French-Palestinian artist based in London, working across painting, film and installation. In 2020, their film Truth and Kinship was screened at BFI London Film Festival and DRAF, London. Their work has been exhibited at Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow; South London Gallery, London; Science Gallery, London; Almanac Projects, Turin; Arcadia Missa, London and Sweetwater, Berlin. Since 2017, they have run the LGBTQI+ project space and artist support network, Queerdirect.
Click here to read about the programme and touring dates.
August 2, 2021Artists and their work from far left image clockwise: Siphenati Mayekiso; Nadine Mckenzie; …kruse; Artist Rebekah Ubuntu (pictured), commissioned performance at Tate Britain, image courtesy of Tate London. Find Rebekah online @rebekahubuntu
For the fifth Vital Capacities‘ residency, we partner with Institute for Creative Arts (Cape Town) and Wysing Art Centre(Cambridge) to work with artists from both South Africa and the UK. From 2 August, artists Siphenati Mayekiso, Nadine Mckenzie, Rebekah Ubuntu and …kruse will join Vital Capacities, to undertake research and develop new work. Working with our partners, they will explore and exchange new ideas using their studio spaces, and create new work throughout the residency.
The artists for August 2021’s residency are:
Siphenathi Mayekiso (SA) was born in Cape Town and grew up between the city and the rural areas of Eastern Cape. His introduction to Theatre and Performance started at the age of 13, when he was part of forming a drama youth group at IThemba Labantu Centre. His hunger for storytelling took him to UNIMASA to learn puppetry skills, and this is where his group won the Active Puppetry Competition. Two years later he joined the Magnet Theatre training program under the direction of Jennie Reznek and Mark Fleishman. After graduating, he went on to Okiep and joined the Garage Dance Company for intense workshops under the tutelage of Alfred Hinkel. His ever-growing hunger for performance took him to an integrated dance company called Unmute Dance Company. There he started as a trainee and later outreach teacher, a facilitator, a company dance member, and a choreographer. So far, he has presented his solo work called Blood Bath under the direction of the late Standard Bank Young Artist Themba Mbuli in South Africa and Germany.
Nadine Mckenzie (SA) is a qualified integrated dance teacher, receiving training from Alito Alessi at the ImpulsTanz International festival in Vienna in 2010. In 2006 she joined Remix Dance Company. Since then she had produced exceptional work as a performer/ teacher in a wheelchair and has established herself as a well-recognized figure within the performing arts community both nationally and internationally.
Rebekah Ubuntu (UK) is a multidisciplinary artist, musician and university lecturer. Their practice explores speculative fiction through electronic music, sound art, voice, performance, installation, text, songwriting and the moving image. Ubuntu has been commissioned and exhibited work by Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Frieze London, Barbican Centre, Adam Mickiewicz Institute (Poland), Diametre Gallery (Paris), New Art Exchange (Nottingham), FACT (Liverpool) and London’s Serpentine Galleries.
…kruse (UK) is a neurodivergent, experimental artist and writer, whose practice includes drawing, text, storytelling and autoethnographical research. …kruse uses walking, short hikes and longer pilgrimages, to gather data and stories and explore her relationship with the Earth. She is interested in the connections between landscape, mythmaking, magic and science.
Residencies will launch on 2 August – to follow what the artists are up to join the mailing list and follow them on: vitalcapacities.com
August’s residency programme is delivered in partnership with Institute for Creative Arts and Wysing Art Centre, with support from Arts Council England.
Vital Capacities is an accessible, purpose-built digital residency space, that supports artists’ practice while engaging audiences with their work.
Vital Capacities has been created by videoclub in consultation with artists, digital inclusion specialist Sarah Pickthall and website designer Oli Pyle.
Seo Hye Lee, [Sound of Subtitles], 2021Vital Capacities resident artist, Seo Hye Lee, was interviewed by lutte collective as their featured artist for August. Lee talks about her work as a deaf artist working with sound, and her time during the residency on Vital Capacities.
Image: [Sounds of Subtitles] by Seo Hye Lee (2021), commissioned with University of Salford Art Collection as part of Seo Hye Lee’s residency – can now be seen on Vital Capacities’ website: vitalcapacities.com
Artworks from top left, clockwise: Seo Hye Lee, [Sound of Subtitles], 2021; Laura Lulika, Body Building, 2021; Linda Stupart, Watershed 2.0: Pandemic CYOA Cyberspace Edition 2021, 2021 – images courtesy of the artists.Intertwined is our new exhibition on Vital Capacities, presenting new works by resident artists – Seo Hye Lee, Laura Lulika and Linda Stupart. The works have been commissioned in collaboration with our partners: Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN), Phoenix and University of Salford Art Collection. Intertwined opens on 22 July. See the exhibition now by clicking here.
For our June 21 residency on Vital Capacities, we invited three artists from across the UK to explore and develop new work. Over the course of the month the artists did research, tested ideas and created new commissions, working with our partners, artists, web designer and digital inclusion specialist. Intertwined is an exhibition of the commissioned work resulting from June 21’s residency.
Seo Hye Lee was co-commissioned by University of Salford Art Collection, whose experience of working with archives was especially important in contributing to Lee’s new film, [Sound of Subtitles]. Over the month, Lee researched approaches to subtitles and captioning, and how sounds are described or omitted using these tools for increasing accessibility for D/deaf and hard of hearing people. Lee worked with film archives across the country to develop a silent film that invites you, through the captions, to imagine the sounds, and the stories behind them, while provoking the viewer to question the role of captioning.
Laura Lulika’s new work, Body Builder, was co-commissioned by Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network, which includes moving image, music, spoken word, performance and collage. Over the course of the residency, Lulika explored hyperability, mascot bodies, the false binary of healthy/unhealthy, and the absurdity of footballer’s fake foul dives. Lulika has created an interactive collage, combining Frankenstein mascots, pub settings and automobile bodies all with their own tales to investigate.
During the residency, Linda Stupart continued to explore the River Cole, a process begun in 2020, resulting in the work-in-progress film, Watershed (2020). During June 21, Stupart continued to walk and map the River Cole, which has resulted in the creation of an interactive story/game, with images, texts and music; Watershed 2.0: Pandemic CYOA Cyberspace Edition 2021. Stupart’s new work has been co-commissioned by Phoenix in Leicester, who supported them to explore new game-based platforms, including Twine – a programme for making choose your own adventure (COYA) games, with which the new work has been created.
To find out more about how the artworks came about, explore the artists’ studios, where you can see the developments which led to the new work. To see the exhibition click here.
With thanks to Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network, Phoenix and University of Salford Art Collection for their partnership and collaboration. Thank you to Arts Council England for their support.
In Search of Chemozoa, is a new project by boredomresearch (British artist duo Vicky Isley and Paul Smith). The project is based on their residency at Arizona Cancer Evolution Center (USA) and at Aspex Portsmouth, responding to new therapeutic approaches centred on managing rather than curing cancer. Combining computer animation with film from inside laboratories and in natural environments, boredomresearch presents ideas for an alternative cultural understanding of cancer. Informed by interviews with over 20 scientists, the film presents an original view of the relationship between the latest cancer research and developing theories about biomedical and ecological health.
‘In Search of Chemozoa’ by boredomresearch (2021)
‘For we are but a single cell’ by boredomresearch (2020)
For we are but a single cell provides an insight into the science behind the artwork, including interviews with scientists from the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center who discuss the importance of nature in cancer research. Together a bridge is formed between creative fiction and scientific insight that is changing how we respond emotionally and practically to one of the most challenging diseases for humanity.
To learn about the making of the film, click here to explore the technical animation methods used in creating In Search of Chemozoa. And try out the interactive Chemozoa mutation modeller designed by Arizona Cancer Evolution Center in response to In Search of Chemozoa.
boredomresearch talk about their residency in Arizona, and their experience working with scientists and cancer research in this interview with Lucy Sabin, click here to read.
As part of the exhibition, Aspex Portsmouth has commissioned two learning resources and an animaton for younger visitors, find them by clicking here.
In Search of Chemozoa was commissioned and funded by the Arizona Cancer Evolution Center at the Biodesign Institute (USA) through an award from the National Institute of Health/National Cancer Institute, developed in partnership with Aspex Portsmouth (UK) and supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
This online exhibition runs in parallel with a 3 channel moving image expression of the work at Aspex Portsmouth, UK – showing until 25 July 21. For details on the exhibition at Aspex click here.
About the artists
boredomresearch is a collaboration between British artists Vicky Isley and Paul Smith, internationally renowned for exploring an understanding of the natural world through the medium of computational technologies. Becoming intimately aware of the vulnerability of complex systems, including those which support human life on earth, they present a daring new vision for technological innovation, centered on reuniting the presently splintered domains of art, science and society.
Their work considers our strategies for coping in a world increasingly destabilised by human activity. Collaborating with world leading scientists the artists are challenging a broader concern over a tendency towards increasingly complex solutions to answer the dilemma of environmental crisis.
