London Short Film Festival - UK Premiere

They met under a ceiling of sky (2020) in New Shorts: Experimental: Void Mirror

Sunday 16th January 2022, 3pm, ICA, London

London Short Film Festival 2022

A learning algorithm hallucinates flowers while Andra8 lives a solitary life in the virtual void. Automated sensory enhancement reveals the prevalence and proliferation of data. These works confront our interaction with (and perception of) new technologies, acknowledging the digital realm as a reality.
Exploring the paradoxes and rules within the online wellness movement and artificial ecologies, these shorts overlay archive, sonic landscapes and digital materials. In a strand that always champions innovative visual forms of storytelling, we select new work from artist Alison Nguyen (My Favourite Software is Being Here) and Wei-Chia Wu (Erica).

Curated by Emma Bouraba

Programme:
Scientists now discover new evidence to reconstruct the ecology of A.D.2021, dir. Wenqing Yao, China 2021, 4 min.Mode Collapse, dir. David Witzling, USA 2021, 4 min.Cabo Tuna or The Management of the Sky, dir. Unidad de Montaje Dialéctico, Mexico 2021,13 min. In no Rush to Get Anywhere, dir. Pepe Sapena, Spain 2021, 13 min.darkness within darkness, dir. Chia-Yun Wu, UK 2021, 6 min.Enough, dir. Andy Sowerby, USA 2021, 2 min.Erica, dir. Wei-Chia Wu, Taiwan 2021, 5 min. They met under a ceiling of sky, dir. Catriona Gallagher, UK 2021, 21 min.my favourite software is being here, dir. Alison Nguyen, 2021, 20 min.


ENTWINED:Rural.Land.Lives.Art. end of programe exhibition tours to Assembly House, Newcastle

Assembly House, 55 Westgate Road, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 1SG
Open 11am-3pm Thurs 2nd, Fri 3rd, Sat 4th, Thurs 9th Fri 10th Sat 11th Dec 2021

Featuring Andrew BurtonRobbie Coleman & Jo HodgesSam DouglasShane FinanCatriona GallagherBridget KennedyEmily KetteringhamKate Liston plus films about the artists’ work by WeLove Media

Special viewing and ENTWINED publication launch Weds 1st Dec 6-8pm
Refreshments provided, all welcome!

Access: The exhibition at Assembly House is on two levels with stairs.

About: Over a two-year period, disrupted somewhat by the pandemic, seven artists, Sam Douglas, Catriona Gallagher, Shane Finan, Emily Ketteringham, Robbie Coleman & Jo Hodges, and Bridget Kennedy, as well as two associated artists Andrew Burton and Kate Liston, took up residencies, some based at Highgreen for ten months, others shorter month-long residencies hosted by local organisations: Unison Colour, The Heritage Centre, Tarset Village Hall and Kielderhead Wildwood Project (NWT).

This exhibition is the culmination of the ENTWINED programme which sought to take a closer look at the interconnection between all things. Through the artists’ eyes and imagination, informed by research gathered from readings, personal observation, embodied experience and shared knowledge, the works unveil what lies within, beneath and beyond the tangible or intangible realms of what makes a ‘place’.

The exhibition was first exhibited at VARC’s home of Highgreen in September 2021. The show now tours to an urban context and coincides with the launch of the ENTWINED publication and online conference.

The publication, edited by Mike Collier and Helen Pailing, expands on some of the conversations and ideas sparked by the ENTWINED programme and reflects on VARC’s 21 years as an arts charity based in rural Northumberland. Invited authors include several partners from the ENTWINED Steering Group.

ENTWINED Online Assemblage is an asynchronous conference, hosted by Newcastle University’s Institute of Creative Arts Practice, and takes the form of a series of pre-recorded conversations and presentations. These videos will be released during the lead up to the exhibition at Assembly House and will remain online.


ENTWINED:Rural.Land.Lives.Art. end of programme exhibition, Highgreen

4th - 12th September 2021

VARC, Highgreen, Tarset, Northumberland NE48 1RP
Featuring Andrew BurtonRobbie Coleman & Jo HodgesSam DouglasShane FinanCatriona GallagherBridget KennedyEmily KetteringhamKate Liston plus films about the artists’ work by WeLove Media
Sun 5th, Sat 11th & Sun 12th Sept 11 – 3pm

Minibus from Newcastle available on Sat 4th Sept, bookable via VARC’s website or eventbrite link here
The two year, multi-partner ENTWINED:Rural.Land.Lives.Art. programme will culminate this September with an exhibition at VARC’s home at Highgreen, rural Northumberland NE48 1RP. In this exciting, multidisciplinary show curated by Cynthia Morrison-Bell, you will find work of the ENTWINED artists installed in the barns and outbuildings around the estate.

The exhibition opens on Saturday 4th September and will run until Sun 12th September. All welcome!


Sheffield Doc Fest - Premiere of Video Villanelle (for distance)

NORTHERN FOCUS SHORTS 

Halo Showroom Cinema 3 Sun 13 June 14:45 - Sun 13 June 16:02 

Incidental phone videos from the artist’s camera reel are edited into the poetic form of a villanelle. Portrait-format clips - filmed to send to distant loved ones or to capture instances of caught attention - show fragments of events that lie between movement and stasis. Two lives between two countries follow an A-B-A rhyming structure, with sequences of birds in flight appearing as repeating refrains. Swallows above an Aegean beach at sundown and a murder of crows against northern skies, streetlight glow by motorbike and puddled lanes by bicycle; a hand clasping a leaf and sunlight over bare knees in transit. When and why do we choose to capture such moments? Can a life be lived between places in a year of lockdowns and the end of freedom of movement? Video Villanelle (for distance) reflects on changing relationships to home during lockdown. 

Video Villanelle (for distance) will be followed by an in-person Q&A with Catriona Gallagher which will be live-streamed from the cinema to Selects.


VARC Open Studios: Catriona Gallagher & Shane Finan at Highgreen

Saturday 24th April 2021 

We are pleased to welcome a limited number of visitors in person to this Work in Progress Open Studios event at Highgreen on Saturday 24th April 2021. The open studios will feature works in progress by Catriona Gallagher, artist in residence at Highgreen since July 2020, and Shane Finan, artist in residence during April 2021 with Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Kielderhead Wildwood project. The event is free to attend, but it is essential that you book one of the available time slots for your visit, using the Eventbrite online booking system, or by contacting lorna@varc.org.uk who will be able to book a time on your behalf. 

Catriona Gallagher and Shane Finan are part of the ENTWINED: Rural. Land. Lives. Art programme. Work shown as part of the Work in Progress Open Studios day will be documented and hosted online for those unable to attend. The ENTWINED programme will also culminate in an exhibition in September 2021.


no–body’s room Online Video Art Screening

The Room Projects, Paris. 8th - 10th January 2021. Created and Curated by The Room Projects in collaboration with LUX 

no — body’s room investigates, researches, and brings together video artworks that reflect on the idea of the “cannibal image”. The image is seen as a “living body” that nourishes itself with other images. The screening will show works that establish a dialogue between the representation of the human body and the moving images, following three sub-categories: Skin, Biting and Chewing, Viscera. Each category will screen works of contemporary artists alongside three “guest” archive video artworks of LUX that will be announced one day before the screening.


Back home, Kypselian Salon - Snehta, Athens

29th Dec 2020 - 10th January 2021. Online exhibition 

Given the social constrains we are all facing, Snehta decided to develop a virtual version of its annual Salon exhibition to make it accessible to every single one of you. While it was difficult to showcase new artworks in the exhibition, the team selected works from the depot to present you a well curated experience. The exhibition takes place literally in a Kypselian Salon, that being Ag.Zonis’ apartment where some of the participating artists and former residents have lived and stayed there during their residency at Snehta. 

Artists Irini Bachlitzanaki, John Bicknell, Amalia Charikiopoulou, Aristea Charoniti, Florent Frizet, Catriona Gallagher, Ioanna Gouma, Steven Harvey, Elsa Henderson, Eva Isleifsdottir, Ismene King, Vasiliki Koukou, Dimitra Kousteridou, Vasiliki Lefkaditi, Eleanor Lines, Theodora Malamou, Nikos Mantzios, Tommaso Mauriello, Zoi Moutsokou, Pantelis Pantelopoulos, Sofia Papapolyzou, Iris Plaitakis, Lucas Recchione, Joseph Stokes, Augustus Veinoglou, Su Wang, Apostolos Zerdevas, Stathis-Alexandros Zoulias 

Team: Project management, concept: Augustus Veinoglou, 3D design, scripting, visual ramifications: Christos Bourantas, Project assistant & press: Simone Niarou, Snehta coordination, Graphic design & photography: Tommaso Maurellio, Snehta internship programme, Erasmus+


Thresholds - Online Exhibition at MIMA October 2020 - March 2021

Thresholds is a digital exhibition that explores the impact of Covid-19 on relationships to home. Curator Aidan Moesby commissioned artists Sonia Boué, Lindsay Duncanson and Catriona Gallagher to develop new films and photographs in response to their experiences of 2020. The exhibition includes an essay by writer and academic Jade French co-commissioned with Corridor8. This exhibition is organised as part of Aidan Moesby’s curatorial associateship with MIMA through our partnership programme with DASH, MAC and Wysing Arts Centre. This national partnership supports the development of Disabled curators.

An online panel discussion is hosted by Disability Arts Online on 28 October, 18.0019.00.


as tree - group exhibition, Co. Sligo, Ireland

October 9th-17th 2020 *POSTPONED

Shane Finan, Tadhg ó Cuirrín, Catriona Gallagher Curator/organiser: Shane Finan Venue: St. George’s Hall, St. George’s Church, Tubbercurry, Co. Sligo 

In a year when the human role in our environment has never been so pronounced, these artworks about humans and nature form a timely event in rural north-west Ireland. The works include an interactive light installation that responds to the behaviour of visitors, a film that will be screened at intervals, and watercolour paintings of plastic landscapes. Booking is necessary to attend the exhibition to comply with COVID-19 restrictions. Supported by Creative Ireland Programme Sligo (2018-2022).


Laterale Film Festival - World Premiere of They met under a ceiling of sky

Laterale Film Festival, September 28-29-30th 2020 Cinema San Nicola, Cosenza, Italy. 

‘Have you ever heard the wind blowing through some uninhabited houses? It changes the perspective and they seem not so empty anymore; something has left a trace, but you have arrived just a moment too late. And yet, who can say that what we believe to be lost is something apart from ourselves? This is the meaning of a visitation to a lonely house by a woman. The knowledge of that trace changes, little by little, her way of living; it is a slight but decisive perceptible slipping. Along with her, we go after a ghost who lives in a written page. This recollection switches from the paper to her thought. They will be able to meet, the woman and her followed spirit, where the wind has disappeared, under a ceiling of sky.’ - Laterale Film Festival 

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