Still from Inscriptions of an Immense Theatre, single channel film, colour, sound, 33:09 mins, 2018, Courtesy the artist & Domobaal gallery, London
Still from Inscriptions of an Immense Theatre, single channel film, colour, sound, 33:09 mins, 2018, Courtesy the artist & Domobaal gallery, London
Installation view, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, 2018. Photo: Kasia Kaminska
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Ailbhe Ní Bhriain presents her recent film Inscriptions of an Immense Theatre (2018). With a distinctive blend of film and computer generated imagery, Inscriptions of an Immense Theatre explores ideas of imperial legacy, human displacement and the Anthropocene. Transforming three distinct locations into states of dreamlike strangeness, this work conjures a disorientating vision of a future destabilised by climate change. While drawing us into a space of quiet estrangement, it asks us to consider the interconnected systems of the past and present that have led to this point of crisis. The film’s heightened visuals are accompanied by a voiceover, performed by Eileen Walsh and a commissioned soundtrack by Susan Stenger.
Also screening are excerpts from two of Ní Bhriain’s earlier multiscreen works, Great Good Places (2011) and Window/Departure (2014).
The artist will be in conversation with Dr Sarah Hayden after the screening. They will be joined by the work’s composer, Susan Stenger.
Review
“From the beginning Ní Bhriain has shown a flair for evoking a curious dreamlike space, distinctively her own, in a form of video montage that seamlessly intermingles elements of interiors and landscape, in general and very precise, detailed ways, unfolding at an unhurried pace, usually effected by a slow tracking shot across a subtly shifting scene. An air of aftermath attends the overall work, but an unresolved aftermath, there is also a sense of simmering crisis. Inscriptions is an atmospherically rich combination of image & sound”
Aidan Dunne from The Irish Times, 2019
This work was supported by The Arts Council of Ireland.
Ailbhe Ní Bhriain features as part of the 2020 Artists Film International programme, with Inscriptions (One Here Now), 2018, screening from 24 March – 24 May at Whitechapel Gallery.
Running order:
Great Good Places, four screen installation, colour, sound, 2011. Excerpts duration: 20 mins
Window / Departure: two screen installation, colour, sound, 2013/14. Excerpts duration: 15 mins
Inscriptions of an Immense Theatre, single channel film, colour, sound, 2018. Duration: 33.09 mins
Ailbhe Ní Bhriain is an Irish artist working with film, installation and photography. Her work has shown widely with exhibitions at Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin, Broad Museum, Michigan and Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid among others. She is a lecturer at Crawford College of Art & Design, Cork and is represented by Domobaal gallery, London.
Dr Sarah Hayden is Associate Professor in Literature and Visual Culture at the University of Southampton. Upcoming curatorial projects include Many voices, all of them loved, at John Hansard Gallery, Feb – April 2020. Publications include the monograph Curious Disciplines: Mina Loy and Avant-Garde Artisthood (University of New Mexico Press, 2018), and Peter Roehr–Field Pulsations (co-authored with Paul Hegarty, Snoeck, 2018). Other recent and imminent publications include essays on Christopher Kulendran Thomas, Laure Prouvost, liquid voice and sensorial sovereignty, Francis Picabia, and Jasper Johns. Sarah is currently working on a book about voice in contemporary art. www.voicesinthegallery.com
Susan Stenger is a performer, sound artist and founding member of Band Of Susans, The Brood and Big Bottom. Her eclectic range of collaborators has included dancer/choreographer Michael Clark, writers Iain Sinclair and Alan Moore, filmmaker Pat Collins and visual artists Cerith Wyn Evans, Laura Gannon, Jesse Jones and Ailbhe Ní Bhriain.
Inscriptions IV, solo exhibition at Domobaal Gallery, London, 14.02.20 – 21.03.20
