Outside
Selected from an international open-call, the eight films in this programme explore frontiers beyond the cinema space. Quite literally capturing the outside in some cases, these films also point at more abstract interpretations of this theme – psychological space, outer space and the anxieties of the contemporary condition.
The selected artist filmmakers in Outside are Graeme Arnfield, Amir Ghazi-Noory, Jenny Gordon, Samantha Harvey, Patrick Rowan, Lawrence Lek, Laura O’Neill and Benjamin Orlow.
This is the latest screening in our Artist Film programme, presented in collaboration with the ICA as part of the Artist Moving Image Network, funded by Arts Council England.
Not suitable for under 18s
Artists
Patrick Rowan (b. 1989, Los Angeles, US) is an artist filmmaker based in London and Brighton, his experimental film Psycho-Nebulous explores ideas around simulated reality, reincarnation and the celestial while testing the limitations of digital imagery through vibrant and often poetic reflections on everyday life. Rowan studied at the Wimbledon College of Art, London.
Samantha Harvey’s work Trireme (Perchance to Dream) examines how we encounter digital environments and online social spaces. Her work explores the dialogue between the virtual and physical while questioning our potential to attribute feeling and a sense of apathy towards new technologies. Harvey graduated from the MA Photography at Central Saint Martins, London.
Lawrence Lek creates speculative worlds and site-specific simulations using gaming software, video, installation and performance. Unreal Estate (the Royal Academy is Yours) is a speculative first-person simulation in which London’s Royal Academy of Arts has been sold off as a luxury playboy mansion to an anonymous Chinese billionaire. Lek is a graduate of the Cooper Union, New York, the Architectural Association, London and Trinity College in Cambridge. He is the recipient of the 2016 Jerwood/FVU Award and the 2015 Dazed Emerging Artist Award.
Laura O’Neill (b. 1990 Wigan, UK) received her MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London in 2015. In her work RPM, O’Neill utilizes looped 3D animation and gaming software to navigate hellish environments invoking the aesthetic of protest, anarchy and rebellion. As well as bringing into question our own speculative and tumultuous state of being.
Benjamin Orlow (b.1984, Turku, Finland) is a London-based artist who works with video, sculpture and painting. His video collage serves as a method to at once isolate and interweave narratives. In this cinematic landscape, seemingly-disparate scenarios can occur simultaneously, enabling him to investigate the permanence of digitised media and the ephemeral nature of the captured moments they illustrate. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include The body as a domestic animal at the Abingdon Studios/Grundy Gallery (Blackpool, UK, 2016). He holds a MFA degree from Goldsmiths College.
Amir Ghazi-Noory (b. 1987) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Nottingham. His work I am sorry, it is beyond my control utilizes the cyberculture video compression technique often labelled as ‘data-moshing’, ‘pixel-bleed’ or ‘compression hack fading’ to instigate a visible distortion of the digital moving-image. The result of which is a vibrant and arresting work of abstraction. Ghazi-Noory received his BA (Hons) & MA in Fine Art at the University of Lincoln.
In her film Scapegoat (2014) artist Jenny Gordon reinterprets found footage and filmed material to explore narratives concerning inner turmoil, emotional struggle and alienation within society through carefully constructed visual montages. Gordon graduated from the MA Fine Art at Chelsea College of Art, London. Her work is focused on her personal experience as a woman of mixed race origin, making enquiries into the dislocations of personal identity and physical belonging.
Graeme Arnfield (b. 1991) is an artist living in London. His film Sitting in Darkness explores the circulation, spectatorship and undeclared politics of contemporary networked images. Arnfield’s work has been presented at Courtisane Festival, Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Kasseler Dokfest, LUX, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Aesthetica Film Festival, Manchester Cornerhouse and on Vdrome. He graduated with a Master’s in Experimental Cinema at Kingston University.
