Days of Wonder
Days of Wonder is a curated programme of artists’ film & video created using archival footage by international artists, and archive films by Brighton & Hove pioneer filmmakers from Screen Archive South East (SASE). Archive films will be accompanied by a live music performance.
Bringing together some of the earliest films made in Brighton & Hove (1897-1905) to recent work by UK and international artists, the programme celebrates the creativity of early film pioneers to recent techniques, which repurpose found footage in inventive ways.
Days of Wonder includes work by Leonardo Gracés, Annis Joslin, Seo Hye Lee, Shih-Chieh Lin, Michael Robinson, Alia Syed, and a collection of archive films from Screen Archive South East, including the work of James Williamson and George Albert Smith & Laura Bayley.
The programme is part of a recent project investigating how artists can bring to life the Film & Media Collections of Brighton & Hove, which resulted in an exhibition at Hove Museum & Art Gallery in February 2022.
SCREENING DETAILS
Days of Wonder will show at Fabrica Gallery on 28 April at 7pm.
VENUE: Fabrica, 40 Duke Street, Brighton BN1 1AG
DATE AND TIME: Thursday, 28 April 2022, 7pm
PRICE: £3
BOOK TICKET: Click here to book on Eventbrite
This programme is screened with subtitles for D/deaf and hard of hearing audiences.
FILM PROGRAMME
- Leonardo Gracés, Engranajes, 3:53 mins, 2020 (UK premiere)
- Annis Joslin & Seo Hye Lee, Exquisite Archive, 2:34 mins, 2022
- Seo Hye Lee, [sound of subtitles], 4:35 mins, 2021
- Shih-Chieh Lin, A Short History of Decay, 5:45 mins, 2014
- Michael Robinson, The Dark, Krystle, 9:34 mins, 2013
- Alia Syed, Points of Departure, 16 mins, 2014
- Screen Archive South East, Early Filmmaking in Hove (1897-1905), 18:54 mins, 2022
Days of Wonder is produced by videoclub and Corridor in partnership with Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust with support from Arts Council England, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Film Hub South East, Screen Archive South East and The Arts Society East Sussex.
PROGRAMME AND NOTES
Leonardo Gracés, Engranajes, 3:53 mins, 2020 (UK premiere)
Dismantle the gaze, analyze the fragments, choose, rebuild, generate a new direction: this is the mechanism that for me involves the appropriation of found files. The bodies become gears that merge with a productive objective, while speeches are heard with words that encourage effort and work. Everything is assembled and overlapped to form a dense and rarefied sense machine.
LIN Shih-Chieh, A Short History of Decay, 5:45 mins, 2014
History is the interpretation of linear signs and symbols. By decontextualizing the signs, the images are liberated. To fight against this illusion, let there be glitches. This video is sampled from Assignment Taiwan, a propaganda film made by the US army in the 70s, introducing the colonised history and the establishment of the US military in Taiwan after the Second World War.
Annis Joslin & Seo Hye Lee, Exquisite Archive, 2:34 mins, 2022
Exquisite Archive was made by artists Annis Joslin and Seo Hye Lee when they were commissioned to develop workshops, videos and objects inspired by the Film & Media Collections of Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust and Screen Archive South East.
Annis and Seo Hye are based on opposite sides of the UK, and their collaboration began during the uncertain times of Covid-19, when they began to find ways to test out ideas remotely by exchanging a series of videos via WhatsApp.
Inspired by the inventiveness and playfulness of the Hove’s early film pioneers, Exquisite Archive is based on both the game of consequences and exquisite corpse, but using video — starting with an early silent film clip prompt, one makes a response then sends only the last second to the other via WhatsApp who then repeats the process and vice versa (with a new silent film clip prompt at different points).
Seo Hye Lee, [sound of subtitles], 4:35 mins, 2021
[sound of subtitles] is silent throughout, allowing the audience to travel through the transition of videos and texts and encouraging viewers to conjure their own interpretation of sound and event. Regardless of hearing ability, one can explore their own unique soundscape and reimagine the meaning of listening.
Michael Robinson, The Dark, Krystle, 9:34 mins, 2013
The cabin is on fire! Krystle can’t stop crying, Alexis won’t stop drinking, and the fabric of existence hangs in the balance, again and again and again.
Alia Syed, Points of Departure, 16 mins,2014
The objects and places we cannot leave behind create the tapestry that is Points of Departure.
Exploring themes of personal and collective memory through Syed’s relationship to the city of Glasgow, a voice over describes a tablecloth the artist retrieved whilst clearing her elderly father’s house.
The film attempts to unravel the threads of memory held within this mundane item and to find an image within the BBC archive that relates to Syed’s memories of growing up in Glasgow.
Syed’s father’s unrehearsed attempts to translate an Urdu Ghazal, discovered in the archive, a poetic expression of the beauty of love and the pain of loss exposes a process of translation that becomes the key allowing a path through the labyrinth of both my own memory and the BBC archive.
Screen Archive South East, Early Filmmaking in Hove (1897-1905), 18:54 mins, 2022
G.A. Smith and his wife Laura Bayley made films together at St Ann’s Well Gardens in Hove from 1897 to 1903. Their films began as one-minute unedited scenes and then they taught themselves how to combine shots and create film sequences. This introduced the basic elements of film language. James Williamson was inspired by their work, and made multi-shot comedies, trick films and dramas in Hove from 1899 to 1909.
Train Entering Hove Station
George Albert Smith, 1897
The Miller and the Sweep
G.A. Smith and Laura Bayley, 1897
Hanging Out the Clothes; or, Master, Mistress and Maid
G.A Smith and Laura Bayley, 1897
The Kiss in the Tunnel
G.A. Smith and Laura Bayley, 1899
As Seen Through a Telescope
G.A. Smith and Laura Bayley, 1900
Grandma’s Reading Glass
G.A. Smith and Laura Bayley, 1900
Let Me Dream Again
G.A. Smith and Laura Bayley, 1900
A Big Swallow
James Williamson, 1901
The Magic Extinguisher
James Williamson, 1901
Our New Errand Boy
James Williamson, 1905
Original 35mm prints from the BFI.
Screen Archive South East is part of the University of Brighton, and it collects, preserves and promotes the region’s screen heritage.
