Wild Thinking
Friday 10 June 2011, 9:00pm
Sheffield
We are pleased to announce the launch of Sheffield Fringe 2011 as a pop-up exhibition in an secret location. Wild Thinking, selected by Minou Norouzi, brings together self-refential punk rock comments, experiments in doorknob falatio, and a man who wants death, without death wanting him.
Participating artists: Margaret Salmon, Luke Fowler and Anna McLauchlan, Laure Prouvost, Maria Marshall, Erica Scourti, Harold Offeh, Charlie Tweed , Behrooz Karamizade, Sharone Lifschitz, Fred Lindberg, Yaron Lapid.
Sheffield Fringe will be held annually to coincide with the Sheffield Doc/Fest aiming to provide a complimentary space to foster collaborations between the contemporary art and documentary communities.
Co-founders: Marie Billegrav Bryant, Jennifer Fearnley, Rani Khanna, Minou Norouzi. With special thanks to LUX.
Paddington Collaboration | Luke Fowler and Anna McLauchlan | UK 2007 | Video | 3 min
Paddington Collaboration has the warmth and dense texture of an essayist film, quietly revealing much about the relationship of the makers and the fragile nature of collaboration. The narrative reveals the physical and temporal structures that guide this collaboration, together with those that shape expectations of what it means to contribute to this type of film. Courtesy of Luke Fowler, Anna McLauchlan and LUX, London.
Puzzle Fit | Maria Marshall | UK 2002 | Video | 1 min 50s
At a kids party, dressed as a Saturday Night Fever type disco, a dating game ensues in which the girls energetically plot fantasy futures, establishing a hierarchy of wants, whilst the boys remain fairly passive.
Monolog | Laure Prouvost | UK 2009 | Video | 9 min
A self-referential punk rock comment on the relationship between maker and viewer. Monolog gets its strength from a delirious honesty, and is also refreshingly unacademic. Courtesy of Laure Prouvost and LUX, London.
P.S. | Margaret Salmon | UK 2002 | Video | 8 min
Anger and frustration are often expressed with repetitious utterings. Here a couple arguing forms the 1st filmic portrait in Salmon’s series of American typographies. The near inaudibility of the soundtrack adds to the sense of despair, whilst visually P.S. weaves together iconography from a range of film genres including classic Hollywood films from the 40s, and New Deal documentaries.
Arabesque | Harold Offeh | UK 2007 | Digital video | 1 min 10s
A playfully pathetic homage to Grace Jones’ cover artwork from her legendary album ‘Island Life’. Artist Harold Offeh attempts to reenact the original artwork that sees a manipulated image of Jones holding an impossible arabesque pose.
Notes II | Charlie Tweed | UK 2009 | Video | 8 min 10s
In Notes II, part of a video series, Charlie Tweed continues his exploration of control methodologies by testing the boundaries of control desires, and control solutions. The series consists of “video transmissions” that are paranoid dispatches sent from anonymous groups and are part-instructional films and part-manifestos for survival.
Packing | Behrooz Karamizade | Germany 2009 | Video | 4 min
Observing children at play never fails to charm. This diligently observed piece is the first part in a trilogy looking at children making their first steps in an adult world. They are inventive, and resourceful battling their way to complete a weighty mission in a busy Iranian street market.
The Line and The Circle | Sharone Lifschitz | UK 2009 | Video | 19 min 26s
In an infectiously gentle conversation over the developing tray in a darkroom, a mother and daughter reflect on their shared history of Kibbutz life in the 70ies. While printing images from their Kibbutz’s archive the conversation becomes a meditation on idealism and the demise of a socialist utopia.
How to Handle a Brief Encounter | Fred Lindberg | Sweden 2010 | Video | 2 min 54s
Playing with the spectators willingness to be turned on – the ‘pornography of intimacy’, a term coined by Tony Dowmunt, is realized here as a ridiculous and desperately funny condition of mankind.
You Have Not Found His Riddle | Yaron Lapid | Israel 2003 | Video | 12 min 40s
A seventy-year-old man living in Israel wants to die. But death does not want him.
A charming, absurdist, loveable piece.
Citizen Choice | Erica Scourti | UK 2010 | Digital video | 5 min 33s
Positive thinking podcasts covering everything from prosperity to successful relationships, are cut together and accompanied by stock videos to tell an obsessive compulsive story of freedom of choice, and self-actualization.