war & peace 2007 Artists & works in order of screening: Louise Burston, Army (2006) 2’18” For several years Louise Burston has collected archive photographs from a small community of 300 inhabitants in a village in Northern Greece, sorting, categorising and re-presenting them. Old photographs, once detached from the people they mean most to, often become intangible vehicles of collective memory and can stand in for our fantasies of cultural and personal history. Louise Burston works with film and photography and has just completed an MA in Fine Art at the University of the West of England. Louise has exhibited widely with work in private and public collections, and been involved in site-specific projects, most recently at Bristol Zoo Gardens and Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. Sean Taylor, 100 Paces (2006) 18’ A commission for the National Museum of Ireland at Collins Barracks, Dublin. The starting point was the original hand painted pace marking located on the walls of the square, a legacy from when the British Army occupied the barracks. These pace markings numbered 0-100 were used to assist army recruits whilst learning drill movements. The weight and historical legacy of Anglo/Irish conflicts, the changing nature of this relationship, and the traditional perception of soldiers as professionally trained killers were other elements that shaped the work. The chorus and main section is a re-working of The Soldiers Song (the Irish national anthem). The final verse is based upon the peacekeeping missions undertaken over the years on behalf of the United Nations. Sean Taylor has undertaken numerous site specific public art projects, recent solo exhibitions include the John Erickson Museum of Art in Florida and C.A.P. House in Kobe. He is a lecturer at the Limerick School or Art and Design, and an Artist Panel Member of the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Fern Thomas, Creation Stories (2005) 8’50” Inspired by creation myths from around the world; where a universe can be formed by the blink of an eye, or from an egg breaking in two. What is the role of mythology in today’s society? Interaction with everyday objects is slowed down placing emphasis on the sound. The work creates a sense of duality between the poetic nature of the actions and the destructive resonating outcomes. Fern Thomas has exhibited performance, sound and video work at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Mission Gallery, Swansea, Oxdox: Oxford International Film Festival and will be part of Expo Plymouth hosted by Sonic Arts Network in June. She is part of a collaborative group based in Swansea which hosts participatory events. Angelo Picozzi, 00:00:45 (2007) 0’45” Angelo Picozzi's work is concerned with investigating the space between the visual and aural encounter and its relationship to the experience of an individual. Memory and the experience of time are the primary themes within his work which are realised in video, audio and sculptural pieces. Tim Shore, Cabinet (2006) 18’20” American terrorist Theodore John Kaczynki wrote his philosophical critique of technological civilisation, “Industrial Society and Its Future”, in a small rustic cabin in Montana. In 1995 the Washington Post published the ‘Unabomber’ manifesto on the understanding that his terrorist campaign would cease. Cabinet was funded by a London Artists’ Film and Video Award, and has been shown at the Rotterdam Film Festival, Impakt Festival (Centraal Museum, Utrecht) and won second prize at transmediale.07, Berlin. Tim is Head of Animation at the London College of Communication, University of the Arts London. Fiona Kam Meadley, Testimonies from Liberia (2007) 14’ In this piece Fiona Kam Meadley is attempting to address the question “Why do people fight?” Testimony from Liberia does not seek to provide answers, but to document the criss-crossing between confrontation and conflict, that is the nature of modern warfare. The beautiful images bear a harsh reality. Rubber trees are marked with the scars of slaughter tapping. Daily life is punctuated with reminders of the fragility of the peace – the presence of UN troops, broken infrastructure, former rebels seeking new livelihoods. There is singing everywhere, and a palpable sense of hope, but that too is fragile. The work is edited from hours of footage taken by John Meadley during visits to Liberia in 2006, whilst working on a post-conflict reconstruction programme; visits that took him to remote regions of the country. Fiona Kam Meadley is an artist currently working with video. She previously worked in Africa and Asia for fifteen years as a development worker, an experience which has informed her artistic practice. She started the “War & Peace” events, which aims to nurture voices examining issues of conflict, freedom and justice. “War and Peace” has run since 2005. Ronnie Close, A Hard Place (2006) 2’47” and Archive 2 (2006) 1’?? Audio testimonies of Republican and Loyalist hunger strikers, records of inner voices, both emblematic and intimate, this piece responds to the historical identity of the Northern Ireland conflict, and the role myths play in the formation of personal and collective identity. (??? text to come from Ronnie about Archive 2) Ronnie Close is co-founder of Format, Artists Group, Bristol and senior lecturer in Photo Art at the University of Wales, Newport. A Hard Place has been screened at the VIVA Video Art Festival, Valencia, the Darklight Film Festival, Dublin, the Indiana International Video Art & Architecture Festival, and the Novosibirsk State Art Museum. Claire Fowler, Jamal’s Journey (2007), 14’ Four years ago, Iham and Jihad lost their third child on the operating table. Now their 9 month old son Jamal’s life is threatened by congenital heart disease. A British surgeon’s arrival in Palestine offers hope. But first the Samara family must travel from the West Bank to Jerusalem. Claire Fowler is a British film maker who works with documentary and experimental narratives. She divides her time between Europe and the States. Her work has been screened at numerous international venues including the Rotterdam Film Festival, Rencontres Internatinales Festival Partis/Berlin, Rooftop films in NYC, USA and the PDX festival in Oregon, USA.