Kevin Atherton, In Two Minds

Date: Thursday 22 October 7pm | Location : Edinburgh

Edinburgh’s Stills is marking the launch of REWIND + PLAY – a DVD documenting key works from the first decade of artist’s video practice in the UK – with a free performance of Kevin Atherton’s In Two Minds. A two monitor installation first exhibited in the Serpentine Gallery, London in 1978, the work consisted of Atherton on one video monitor asking questions of himself on the other monitor. At the time of making the piece he had no intention of using it beyond the Serpentine show, the rough and ready state of the black and white tapes attest to this. However, the ‘open’ or ‘incomplete’ nature of the work allows him to ‘re-enter’ it and create a new live version, where as a 58 year old man he can answer questions put to him by his 27 year old former self.

Produced in collaboration with LUX, REWIND + PLAY feautres everything from early conceptual experiments exploring the parameters of the medium to works dealing with media culture and television, testifying to the range and diversity of the first years of video as new media.

DVDs will be available to purchase at Stills.

Laurie Hill

APEngine spoke with Laurie Hill about his moving image work, including his award-winning film Photograph of Jesus, which explores the archive of Getty Images.

Laurie Hill is a London-based artist. He studied Art at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London, and Animation at the Royal College of Art, London. Laurie was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2007. In 2008, he was a Finalist in the Jerwood Moving Image Awards and was the Winner of Short & Sweet/Getty Images Short Film Challenge. In 2009, his Getty Image inspired film Photograph of Jesus won the Best Animated Short Film at Seattle International Film Festival and at the Tampere Film Festival and won Laurie the McLaren Award for Best New British Animation at Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Check out Laurie’s film Photograph of Jesus and stills from the film.

Photograph of Jesus, image courtesy of Getty Images

Photograph of Jesus is Laurie Hill’s response to a challenge set by Getty Images, who invited filmmakers to create a piece utilising images from their Hulton Archive. Rather than set a rigid brief, the challenge offered key words and phrases as prompters to guide the filmmakers’ creativity. Examples of these prompters included ‘discover our past,’ ‘images that shape our future,’ ‘still & moving imagery,’ ‘ordinary people, ordinary things’ and ‘extraordinary people, extraordinary things.’ Hill’s was one of four proposals chosen, and the resulting film (named after one after one of the most absurd but most frequent requests that the archive receives) is a witty and uproarious portrayal of images taking on a life of their own. Replete with dogfights, undead dodos, Edwardian hussies and a 2D Fuhrer coming a cropper, the film is a work of meticulously executed chaos, full of unexpected and entertaining juxtapositions. For more on Laurie, the film and his practice, take a look at APEngine’s interview with him.

Credits
A film by Laurie Hill
Images courtesy of Getty Images