Past Exhibition
16 April- 24 June 2013
This season presents three artists’ films offering different approaches to performance and bodily presence.
Minds to Lose (2008–2011) by India-based artist Neha Choksi (b. 1973) is based on a performance in which the artist anaesthetised herself and four farm animals whilst the public were encouraged to pet both sedated artist and animals. The film looks at issues of presence and absence with humans and animals entering a subconcious state, becoming passive recipients of physical affection.
Norwegian artist Kaia Hugin (b. 1975) presents Five Parts – A Motholic Mobble (Part 5) (2012) part of an on-going series of video performances in which the main female figure hangs, levitates, floats or digs herself into the ground. Combining film, choreography and movement, Hugin’s unsettling performances explore psychological states of guilt and punishment and a fear of our own bodies.
Supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy.
American artist Alix Pearlstein (b. 1962) is concerned with spectatorship and the relationship between the camera, viewer and subject. In The Drawing Lesson (2012), we watch actors who are in turn watching each other before turning their gaze directly onto the viewer, heightening the tension between the observer and the observed.
Artists’ Film International showcases artists working with film, video and animation, selected by 14 partner organisations world-wide and presented over the course of a year in each venue. Neha Choksi is selected by Project 88, Mumbai, India; Kaia Hugin by KINOKINO Centre for Art and Film, Sandnes, Norway and Alix Pearlstein by Ballroom Marfa, Texas, US.
Please note that no animals were harmed during the performance in Neha Choksi’s film.
Neha Choksi
Minds to Lose, 2008-2011
Single-channel HD video, widescreen, colour, sound, looped
11.54 mins.
Kaia Hugin
Five Parts – a Motholic Mobble (part 5), 2011
HD video
08:50 mins.
Alix Pearlstein
The Drawing Lesson , 2012
Single-channel HD , colour, sound
7:13 minutes
Artists’ Film International is a collaborative project established by the Whitechapel Gallery in 2008, featuring film, video and animation from around the world. A partnership between 16 global partner organisations, the programme brings together recent works which are presented over the course of a year in each venue. Find out more
