Finding Fanon Part One: Please note you will need to enter the password 'Fanon' and press 'Access' to view the film:

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1 FINDING FANON BY LARRY ACHIAMPONG & DAVID BLANDY In Larry Achiampong & David Blandy's collaborative practice, they share an interest in popular culture and the post-colonial position. They examine communal and personal heritage, using performance to investigate the self as a fiction, devising alter-egos to point at their divided selves. LARRY ACHIAMPONG (b. 1984) Lives and works in London, UK Larry Achiampong is a British-Ghanaian artist who has exhibited, performed and presented projects in various institutions within the UK and abroad including Tate Britain/Modern, London; Hauptbahnhof (Documenta 13), Kassel; Iniva, London; ICA, London; Yinka Shonibare s Guest Project Space, London;Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam; Ausland, Berlin and the Bokoor African Popular Music Archives Foundation, Accra. Achiampong is currently undertaking a residency at The British Library Sound Archive DAVID BLANDY (b. 1976) Lives and works in Brighton & London, UK David Blandy has exhibited at venues nationally and worldwide such as Bloomberg Space, London; Kiasma Contemporary Art Museum, Helsinki; The Baltic, Gateshead; Turner Contemporary, Margate; Spike Island, Bristol; Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Germany; PS1, New York and Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China. Represented by Seventeen, London. His films are distributed through LUX. Blandy has a solo exhibition, 'Citadel', at The Exchange, Newlyn Art Gallery, UK Links to videos and press: Finding Fanon Part One: Please note you will need to enter the password 'Fanon' and press 'Access' to view the film: Finding Fanon Part Two: No Password needed Review: Hyperallergic on the exhibition 'Media Minerals' at Dolph Projects, London which was based on the background research to the 'Finding Fanon' Part One Interview & highlights on 'Culture Box', 'Finding Fanon Part One' was shown as part of "The Vanishing Point of History: L Été photographique de Lectoure", Centre d'art et photographie de Lectoure, France. Curated by Catsou Roberts

2 Media Minerals, Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Dolph Projects, London, May 2015 'Media Minerals' took the raw materials of the duo's 'Finding Fanon' film into a space, presenting everything but the final work. They collected hundreds of images, built thousands of words of writing, and generated hours of audio, all of which were whittled down to less than a hundred images, a soundtrack to accompany the 15minute film and 900 words in the script. Several films inspired the final edit: a brainwashing scene from the 70 s conspiracy thriller, Parallax View; a montage from Spike Lee s Bamboozled; the voiceover and low-fi sci-fi of Chris Marker s La Jetée and Sans Soleil; and John Akomfrah s Portrait of Professor Stuart Hall in The Stuart Hall Project. Through all of this they are seeking to decipher a shared history, a turbulent saga in many ways, and also attempting to envisage a future. Not by the erasure of history s events, but through some tentative form of understanding For further info: More images:

3 Finding Fanon Part One, Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, May 2015 Link to view film: Please note you will need to enter the password 'Fanon' and press 'Access' to view the film: 'Finding Fanon' Part One is the first part in a series of works by artists Larry Achiampong and David Blandy; inspired by the lost plays of Frantz Fanon, ( ) a politically radical humanist whose practice dealt with the psychopathology of colonisation and the social and cultural consequences of decolonisation. In the film, the two artists negotiate Fanon s ideas, examining the politics of race, racism and the post-colonial, and how these societal issues affect their relationship. Their conflict is played out through a script that melds found texts and personal testimony, transposing their drama to a junkyard houseboat at an unspecified time in the future. Navigating the past, present and future, Achiampong and Blandy question the promise of globalisation, recognising its impact on their own heritage. 'Finding Fanon' is supported by Arts Council England. With thanks to Hamish Mckenzie. Filming & Photography by Claire Barrett

4 'Finding Fanon Part One' has been screened at the following venues: The Vanishing Point of History: L Été photographique de Lectoure, Centre d'art et photographie de Lectoure, France. Curated by Catsou Roberts, August 2015 UK Premiere at BFI London Film Festival, Sunday 18 October 2015 The film will next be installed at: Still (the) Barbarians, Eva International Biennial 2016, curated by Koyo Kouoh, April 16 July

5 Finding Fanon Part Two, Larry Achiampong & David Blandy, Oct 2015 Link to view the film: No Password needed: Finding Fanon Two collides art-house cinema with digital culture s Machinima, resulting in a work that explores the post-colonial condition from inside a simulated environment the Grand Theft Auto 5 in-game video editor. This video work combines several stories, including how the artists familial histories relate to colonial history, an examination of how their relationship is formed through the virtual space, and thoughts on the implications of the post-human condition. Commissioned by Brighton Digital Festival Supported by National Lottery Funds through Arts Council England Produced by Artsadmin.

6 Finding Fanon: Gaiden (In Production), Larry Achiampong & David Blandy FF Gaiden: Alternative is a new video work created from a process of collaboration between artists David Blandy and Larry Achiampong and the Newcastle-based youth group, The Factory. Together they have used the virtual space of Grand Theft Auto 5 to explore ideas around the writings of Frantz Fanon, whilst also, asking what it means to be entering the adult world at this precise moment in time. The work has been specially commissioned by Tyneside Cinema, and is supported by Arts Council England. Gaiden (a term synonymous with Japanese anime and videogame culture meaning sidestory ) expands the artist s Finding Fanon series as they devise the tools that they used to produce Finding Fanon 2 with the public. By doing this, they give creative agency to wider communities; working with veterans & prisoners, (at FACT, Liverpool) migrants (at Oslo based International Artist's Residency PRAKSIS, Norway) and young people (at Tyneside Gallery, Newcastle), thus allowing them to direct the way in which they share their stories. FF Gaiden: Alternative focuses on aspects of youth and community between the digital realm and IRL ( In Real Life ). Blandy and Achiampong have worked with The Factory to make a new video work that combines a plethora of material: script-work based on stories and conversations from the participants concerning contemporary identity; thoughts about how their relationships and identities are formed through the virtual world; and an original, encapsulating, synth-driven soundtrack that contextualises the intense, high definition visuals and stories of the film. During their time at PRAKSIS, in Oslo, Blandy and Achiampong will work with recent migrants to the city and Oslo based computer programmers to alter the ingame engine of the popular computer game Grand Theft Auto to make a new film 'Finding Fanon Gaiden: Delete' which will interweave stories of identity and migration to address cultural history and social change. Finding Fanon Part Three (In Development) Finding Fanon 3 will be a film about reconstruction, rejuvenation, and the (im)possibility of reconciliation, as a struggle passes from one generation to the next.