Abstract

Jonathan Cummins curated the following exhibitions for the Void gallery in Derry and other related events:Miranda Pennell, 'Play', July 10 - August 10, 2007Pennell’s films and videos centre on a diverse range of human subjects that have included soldiers and a marching band, teenage ice-skaters, stunt men, dancers and rock-drummers. The people in these films seem to participate in games whose rules remain hidden from the viewer. The young men and women appear bound together by an uncertain logic, their actions forming ambiguous rituals. Pennell first studied Contemporary Dance before she began exploring human movement in what she describes as the real world through film and video. There is no dancing in her films, yet the use of space and time, the relationship between the camera and the subject, the wordless observation of movements and stillness, are informed by a strong choreographic sensibility. http://www.derryvoid.com/exhibitions/2007/Miranda-Pennell/index.htmhttp://www.derryvoid.com/exhibitions/2007/Miranda-Pennell/index.htmEija-Liisa Ahtila, 'The Hour of Prayer and the Present', 10th Feb - 21st March, 2009The 'Present' travelled to Temple Bar Gallery & Studios in Dublin for an exhibition in April/May 2009. Jonathan Cummins was a panelist on 'The Middle Ground', a public panel discussion and part of TBG&S's Critical Contexts series of panel discussions. The panel was chaired by Maeve Connolly and the panelists were Lucy Reynolds, Sarah Glenie and Jonathan Cummins. Jonathan Cummins reported on the exhibition in an interview with BBC Foyle radio in Feb 2009. The emotions of love, sexuality, jealousy, anger, vulnerability, and reconciliation are explored within the works of Void's next artist Eija-Liisa Ahtila. Born in Hameenlinna, Finland in 1959, Ahtila studied film in Los Angeles and London. Her multi-screen installations and films explore and experiment with narrative storytelling, creating extraordinary tales out of ordinary human experiences. Ahtila refers to her work as 'human dramas', fictional narratives drawn from her own observations and experiences as well as from long periods of research. Her works allowing her audiences to peer inside the minds of the characters, laying bare the true fragility of intense psychological and emotional states. Ahtila's highly personal artistic style and ambient imagery places her among today’s most important international artists, and her works have been exhibited at major museums across the world, such as Tate Modern (London), Hamburger Bahnhof (Berlin) and MoMA (New York). To have Ahtila’s work in Derry is a triumph for Void as this is the first solo exhibition the artist has had in Ireland. Void would like to thank The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, The Finnish Institute and The Finnish Embassy for their support in the production of this exhibition. http://www.derryvoid.com/exhibitions/2009/Eija-Liisa-Ahtila/index.htmClare Langan and Paul Rowley, Dec 1st - Jan 8th, 2009 - 10Jonathan Cummins chaired 'Art in Cinema', a public panel discussion with panelists Maeve Connolly, Anne Crilly, Marty Melarkey and Susanne Stich. The public event was part of the Void and Foyle Film Festival 2009 programmes. Clare Langan, 'Metamorphosis'Clare Langan studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and with a Fulbright Scholarship, completed a film workshop at New York University in 1992. Her film Metamorphosis, 2007 won the Principle Prize at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany. In 2007 it was exhibited at the Lyon Biennale; Houldsworth Gallery, London; Loop, Barcelona; NCA Gallery, Tokyo; Pratt Art Gallery New York and the Miguel Marcos Gallery, Barcelona. In 2008 her work was exhibited in the Singapore Biennial, curated by Fumio Nanjo. It will tour to Dojima River Biennal 2009, Osaka Japan. In 2003 Langan presented A Film Trilogy at MoMA in New York and at the Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin. In 2002 she represented Ireland in the 25th Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil where Too dark for night was exhibited. The trilogy was exhibited together for the first time at The International 2002, Tate Liverpool for The Liverpool Biennial. She participated in the Glen Dimplex Artists’ Award 2000 at The Irish Museum of Modern Art. Langan represented Ireland at Sounds and Visions, Art Film and Video from Europe, Museum of Modern Art , Tel Aviv in February 2009. I Gaer (Yesterday) 2007, was created for Becks’ Fusions curated by the ICA London. It incorporated the music of Icelandic band Sigur Ros and is touring internationally through 2009 -2010. Her films are in a number of international public and private collections including The Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Tony Podesta Private Collection, Washington, and the Hugo and Carla Brown Collection, UK. http://www.derryvoid.com/exhibitions/2009/Clare-and-Paul/index.htmPaul Rowley & David Philips (in collaboration with Tim Blue), 'Surface Noise'"Surface Noise" is a new collaborative video work by artists David Phillips, Paul Rowley and Tim Blue. The artists worked with proprietary instruments typically used in film restoration labs to scan 35mm film prints for damage. By re-programming the machines, the artists were able to isolate only the damaged elements of old film prints, the dust, dirt, and scratches. The original film was then deleted from the files, and what remains is a digital record of the markings of time and use on the physical material of the film itself. This extraction process becomes recorded as a digital portrait of physical residue. The image is abstract, but holds on to briefly discernible traces of the original in fleeting flashes and bursts of grainy activity. The images and films selected focus in particular on excerpts from the archives of cinema which depict political conflict, demonstrations, riots, and state interventions in public assembly. As the damaged images rush across the screen, interesting parallels emerge between the mechanics of cinema and patterns social disturbance and unrest. The process of creating the soundtrack followed the making of the images. The artists began with audible time code tracks, bursts of digital signal that are used to keep image and audio in sync on tape, and transferred them to old quarter inch reel-to-reel magnetic tape decks. The tape deck was then played much like an instrument as the signals were fed back into a computer. The results are sounds that are rooted in the strict rigidity of time stamped formats, but yet take on a perceptible human component as the signal is degraded and re-recorded.http://www.derryvoid.com/exhibitions/2009/Clare-and-Paul/index.htmHiraki Sawa, 16 March - 16 April 2010. This exhibition was co-curated with Maoliosa Boyle as part of a two exhibition programme on Japanese Contemporary art. The second part of the programme will exhibit in late 2010/early 2011. Hiraki Sawa was born in Ishikawa, Japan. Sawa uses lo-tech video animation to create poetic dreamscapes – ruminations on ideas of time and motion, innocence and alienation, dislocation and displacement. Recent exhibitions include Experimenta Playground, International Biennal of Media Arts, Melbourne, Australia and 12e Biennale de l’ Image en Mouvement, Centre Pour l’Image Contemporaine, Saint Gervais, Geneve. Sawa has exhibited solo all over the world including Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo, Japan, and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. Hiraki Sawa recently directed David Sylvian’s video for Small Metal Gods. His work is represented by James Cohan Gallery in New York.