Screenings

Film screenings + discussion

Screenings

Parasol unit Film + Video

6, 7 & 8 November, 7 pm
£6/5 conc. each

In response to the themes of Bharti Kher’s current exhibition Parasol unit presents a screening series over three evenings, of contemporary moving image works investigating identity, from cultural identity to roles of women.

Nov 6th 7 pm:
Maya Deren |Meshes Of The Afternoon’, 1943, (15 mins), ‘At Land’, 1944, (15 mins).
Sarah Pucill
| ‘You Be Mother’, 1990, (7 mins); ‘Milk and Glass’, 1993, (8 mins); and ‘Phantom Rhapsody’, 2010, (19 mins).

In this evening of experimental film, notions of reality are interrogated through a theatrical interplay between dream-like perception and everyday objects. Featuring in their own work, Deren and Pucill become reference points for their own deconstruction of spatial coherence, unravelling the stability of the environments they inhabit through a surrealist aesthetic.

Maya Deren (1917 – 1961) is regarded as one of the founders of the postwar American independent cinema. She made six short films and several incomplete films during her career, including one with Marcel Duchamp titled ‘Witch’s Cradle’ (1944).

Sarah Pucill (b. 1961) lives and works in London and is Senior Lecturer at University of Westminster since 2000. Her work has been exhibited in museums, film festivals and galleries internationally, and has won awards at Oberhausen and Atlanta festivals.

Nov 7th 7 pm:
Artist’s selection: ‘The NeverEnding Story’ selected by Sonny Sanjay Vadgama
Director: Wolfgang Petersen, 1984
PG, 94 min.

Parasol unit has invited artist Sonny Sanjay Vadgama to select a film in response to Bharti Kher’s current solo show. Based in a world of mythic creatures called Fantasia, ‘The NeverEnding Story’ is a tale in which reality and the myth merge together to draw on themes of escape and survival. Sonny will introduce this classic fantasy film with a discussion on his selection, and will offer insight into the ideas it raises with relation to the work of Bharti Kher.

Nov 8th 7 pm:
Claire Hooper | ‘NYX’ (22mins), 2010 and ‘Eris’ (36mins), 2012
Followed by an in-conversation between Claire Hooper and Gil Leung of LUX, London.
(Please note these works contain scenes that may be disturbing for some viewers)

In ‘Nyx’ 2010, and its sequel ‘Eris’, 2012, Claire Hooper utilizes figures from the family tree of the Greek gods as a way of addressing certain contemporary social problems. An inherently emotional language is developed with which to examine issues that are often reduced to statistics.

Claire Hooper (b. 1978) lives and works in London. She has participated in numerous exhibitions and screenings internationally at ICA, London; MUMOK, Vienna; Portikus, Frankfurt; Kunstwerk, Berlin; Serpentine, London, DAC Taipei, and International Film Festival Rotterdam amongst others. Hooper is the 2010 winner of The Baloise Art Prize 2010, awarded for her presentation at Art Statements, ArtBasel 41, Basel, and was shortlisted for the Jarman Award 2011. She is represented by Hollybush Gardens, London and distributed by LUX, London

Following the screening Hooper will be in-conversation with writer and curator Gil Leung. Gil Leung is Distribution Manager at LUX and editor of VERSUCH journal.

 

Image: Claire Hooper, NYX, 2010 © the artist. Courtesy Lux, London and Hollybush Gardens Right: Clay modelling, photo: Alex Hughes.