Alex Culshaw statement & portfolio www.alexculshaw.com Statement 2 Egremont Red, 2017 3 A Portrait of Florence, 2017 5 21:21, 2016 8 Untitled Speedboats: I just wanna go on holiday!, 2016 9 Cleaning Flames Part I & II, 2015 11 Urban Malady, 2012 14 Big Trucks Yeah, 2015 18
Statement Working predominantly with moving image and installation, my work confronts the construction of documentary forms and storytelling. By experiencing and recording cultural and socio-economic conditions I explore temporality and realism. My work addresses the political, draws on the poetic and brings forth a discussion between labour, site and identity. Through the use of self-reflexive narratives and a process of documenting and reconstructing, my projects often comment on that which cannot be seen or captured. Ambition and failure are common narratives, as are notions of pretence and the act of embellishment. Between 2016 and 2017 I spent time working and researching at Florence Mine and Arts Centre in Egremont, Cumbria. I developed a body of work and two films, Egremont Red 2017 and A Portrait of Florence 2017. In August 2017 I presented my work to the community at Florence Arts Centre along with footage from inside the now flooded mine, filmed by ex-miner Gary Connell. Working with people from Florence Mine & Arts Centre and developing a relationship with them was highly rewarding. Sharing my work with the community was important; I consider this to be necessary when making work with and about a community or a place. Reconstructing Reality / Reality Construction will be documented and updated online here: http://alexculshaw.com/work/wip Documentation from the screening series Spectrum: A survey of artists moving image can be found here: http://www.artistsmovingimage.net/
Egremont Red, 2017 Egremont Red introduces Florence Mine and Florence Arts Centre in West Cumbria via an iron ore mine in Kiruna, Sweden as well as Robert Smithson s 'underground cinema'. This film, often live read is written as a metalogue. The narrative raises the problematic nature of realising an idea, exploring the relationship between potential impossible propositions, the unseen, and ability to see. The film begins with a preface and then continues to explore the images of Florence Mine and Arts Centre that the narrator has been recording. The film ends with a re-staging and filming of footage of Florence Mine that was originally filmed by ex-miner, Garry Connell. The soundscape, was made in collaboration with Jenny Berger Myhre. Viewing link: https://vimeo.com/224332462 Pass: ERLR 18 min HD Video Documentation from a live reading at Jerwood Visual Arts, photo credit : Hydar Dewachi 2017
Documentation from a live reading at Jerwood Visual Arts, photo credit : Hydar Dewachi 2017 Documentation from a live reading at Jerwood Visual Arts, photo credit : Hydar Dewachi 2017
A Portrait of Florence, 2017 A Portrait of Florence arose after spending a year documenting and researching at Florence Mine and Arts Centre and making Egremont Red 2017. In this film we see the site; a disused iron ore mine that now functions as an arts centre as it stands now. We hear the voices of Gilbert Finlinson, the 82-year-old mine manager, talk about his life working at Florence Mine as well as the voice of Jenni Payne, an artist who worked for the NHS for the majority of her life conducting research in Cumbria. Jenni Payne is one of the founders of the paint makers co-op that uses the remaining haematite to make artists materials. Viewing link: https://vimeo.com/232333456/5a1ac5f5d4 14 min HD Video, Production still; A Portrait of Florence, 2017 Production still; A Portrait of Florence, 2017
Production still; A Portrait of Florence, 2017 Production still; A Portrait of Florence, 2017
Production still; A Portrait of Florence, 2017 Production still; A Portrait of Florence, 2017
21:21, 2016 The persona watches itself present itself. The self is not satisfied and criticises the persona. The performance breaks down as the self has no better solution than to act better. 21:21 stems from a real encounter. 21:21 Video installation with two channel sound. 5 minutes. Image: installation at RCA Work in progress show 2016. Viewing link: https://vimeo.com/153157031 In the installation the woman's voice is heard from the front speaker by the projection and male's from the rear speaker behind the bed
Untitled Speedboats: I just wanna go on holiday!, 2016 How do we culminate our experience through visual loops and negating text? The work negotiates a practice of consumption and representation. 7 channel TV installation with text, 2016 Viewing link: https://vimeo.com/198426334 Untitled Speedboats: I just wanna go on holiday!, 2016, Still Untitled Speedboats: I just wanna go on holiday!, 2016, Still
Untitled Speedboats: I just wanna go on holiday!, 2016, Still As installed in Greenwich London 15.12.16-08.01.17
Cleaning Flames Part I & II, 2015 Part I: Footage of window cleaners working on the largest skyscraper in Baku, Azerbaijan plays. The narrator discusses the growth of the city, her thoughts about the physical, individual and collective actions of the workers and the direction in which our capitalist society continues to develop. Part II: Director Joan Iyiola discusses Cleaning Flames Part I, a film produced in a derelict office block in the City of London. Iyiola contemplates the constraints of the filming process, working with amateur actors and the notion of re-staging for film. Iyiola also examines the difficulties we confront when faced with the perpetual need for urban development. Part I: Looped, HD video projected onto clear suspended Perspex, with sound. 5min 55 sec. Part II: HD video with sound, 4min 35sec. Excerpts available: https://vimeo.com/alexculshaw/cleaningflames Cleaning Flames Part I, 2015: Still
Cleaning Flames Part II, 2015: Still Cleaning Flames Part II, 2015: Still
As installed at Farringdon Factory, London 2015 As installed at Farringdon Factory, London 2015
Urban Malady, 2012 Part I : Footage of a man plastering a building plays whilst a narrative of a building collapse is subtitled. Part II : Film director Elnar Garayev discusses his film Urban Malady. Appropriated text and images from Apichatpong Weerasethaku s Tropical Malady DVD interview. Part III : A woman walks in, and out with a dog. Two HD Videos projected back to back on suspended screen, with surround sound, 7 min 11sec. Screen size 160cm x 90cm. Bench made from breeze blocks and timber. Printed image on postcard. 4-inch Monitor displaying a 10 second film, no sound. Documentation from Goldsmiths University Art Practice Degree Show, June 2012. Excerpts available: https://vimeo.com/114057973
Part III: Still
Image printed on postcard
Big Trucks Yeah, 2015 Two channel HD video projection made during Tomma Rum artists' residency. 3min 04sec. Exhibited in Burträsk and Skellefteå City Hall as part of the European Capital of Culture Program in 2015. Split screen viewing link: https://vimeo.com/105553817 Big Trucks Yeah, 2015: Still Big Trucks Yeah, 2015: Still
As installed in 2015.