‘Moving Body in the City’, a new series of short films and a projected kaleidoscope by six contemporary artists specialising in audio visual artwork, will celebrate the post industrial landscape and communities of Yorkshire at a series of events beginning on 23 November. The work has been commissioned by arts organisation Lumen as part of imove, Yorkshire’s signature arts and culture programme for ensuring a legacy from The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Artists Bernd Behr, Rachel Goodyear, Emily Richardson, Emma Rushton & Derek Tyman and Rob & Matt Vale have used digital images, sound and animation to create films and installations that convey a sense of place, using locations inside and outdoors in Holmfirth, Leeds, Scarborough and Wakefield to reflect how the past, present and future communities of these areas move through their town or city.
Each short film examines historic or abandoned buildings in these Yorkshire towns and cities, assessing how the movement of communities into and through them has changed or influenced the spaces. The films will be shown at locations across Wakefield (24 November) as part of a city wide ‘art walk’ which starts at new gallery The Hepworth Wakefield, where visitors will be able to pick up a map of the route. The films will then go continue its tour of Yorkshire, with the final screening event in Scarborough (February 2011), where it will be part of Coastival Festival; they will also be available online and distributed on a limited edition DVD.
The Kaleidoscope will use images taken at each film location, collected together and projected onto the outside of a building in the town or city as part of the arranged ‘art walk’.
The films
Inspired by the striking new gallery designed by David Chipperfield, The Hepworth Wakefield, and the River Calder on whose banks it sits, in London based artist Bernd Behr’s piece, ‘Contact and Concretion’, he examines the mineralogical history of the new building from its starting point as limestone from Hope Works Quarry to the finished building. ‘Contact and Concretion’ references a 1953 film about Barbara Hepworth – ‘Figures in a Landscape’ – which includes a sequence where the camera zooms out of the centre of one of Hepworth’s sculptures. Bernd has paid homage to this shot using a concrete maquette from early stages in the construction of The Hepworth Wakefield.
Rachel Goodyear (Manchester), whose intricate pencil drawings secured her a place on the shortlist for the 2009 Northern Art Prize, creates hand drawn stop-motion animation for her work ‘Kissing in Tunnels’ – inspired by the same titled film made by Holmfirth local legends the Bamforth brothers. The Bamforth’s came to prominence during the 1890s for the industrial mass production of magic lantern slides and, after 1904, for their expansion into the international market for postcards and then film making. Rachel’s film is also inspired by the Yorkshire town of Holmfirth and local events including the folk festival, which influenced her drawings that feature mischievous demons dancing an eternal jig and crows stabbing at a tree stump.
‘The Futurist’ by Emily Richardson (London) is inspired by the transition in cinema from 35mm film to digital projection. The piece is a single 360 degree animated shot which was filmed at the historic Futurist Cinema on Scarborough’s sea front. Opened as a cinema in 1927 the Futurist has undergone substantial changes, becoming a theatre for much of the second half of the 20th century before extensive refurbishments in 2002. Richardson uses the building’s colourful history and sounds gathered from past shows to create an animated film and soundtrack that pays homage to film and cinema. ‘The Fururist’ has been programmed as part of the Venice, London, Nottingham and Moscow film festivals.
Rushton & Tyman (Manchester) have recreated and distorted a scene from ‘Billy Liar’, the classic 1963 film by John Schlesinger, set in Leeds. In the piece, entitled ‘Liar’, the artists restage a fantasy scene at Leeds Town Hall weaving historic images of 1960s Leeds architecture with new shots of these same buildings under demolition.
The Kaleidoscope
Matt & Rob Vale have produced ‘Kaleidoscope’, a compilation of stills collected in Holmfirth, Leeds, Scarborough and Wakefield which will be projected onto buildings in each of the featured towns and cities. On 24 November from 5pm in Wakefield, the Kaleidoscope will display collections of constantly changing images, showing how people connect to the ground in each location, whether that is by shoe or skateboard, stiletto or scooter.
Jenny Harris, imove producer, commented: “Moving Body in the City examines how we use our surroundings, both physically as we move around and also historically as areas and buildings are shaped by the flow of people that inhabit them, the changes they make and things they leave behind. Hopefully by experiencing the films and the Kaleidoscope, people will be inspired to get involved with more cultural events in the run up to London 2012.”
