As confidence in political systems plummets worldwide, what alternative belief systems might we choose to explore? In these seven videos the politician, the entertainer, the healer and the seducer employ various modes of address to stake their claim for authenticity, while others explore modes of resistance and self-determination. In an age where voters struggle to reconcile the cost of voting Brexit and endorsing Trump, where to next?
At the heart of the Len Lye Centre’s cinema programme is the return of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery’s Projection Series, a regular film programme surveying the landscape of historical and contemporary fine art filmmaking.
Commissioned by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery and curated by Mark Williams for CIRCUIT Artist Film and Video Aotearoa New Zealand.
Projection Series #6: A Little Faith screens weekly on Saturdays 1pm (no screening 20 May).
Total running time: 46 minutes
Artists and works
Steve Carr, Table Cloth Pull, 2007 Digital Video, Sound, 1.30min
In Tablecloth Pull Carr presents himself as magician, building anticipation towards the classic trick in which a tablecloth is wrenched from under a place setting, the intended effect being that the plates and glasses remain perfectly in place.
Karin Hofko, Self-Titled (2011) Digital Video, Sound, 7.25min
“I love you… I’m crazy about you… I’m crazy about your passion!” In a series of takes direct to camera Hofko attempts to deliver a heartfelt monologue of devotion to the viewer, pausing from time to time weigh up the effectiveness of her delivery.
Peter Wareing, Bassus Continuus (2016) Digital Video, Sound, 15.00min
Drawing on footage of artist Jeff Koons, preacher Jimmy Swaggart, and making-of footage from 1968 French film The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, Bassus Continuus examines the construction of character in 20th century broadcast media. While Koons and Swaggart play to the gallery with a mixture of confidence and contrition, the directors of Anna Magdalena Bach exort their actors to deliver less emotion and feeling.
Murray Hewitt, Waitakere Business Club, Trusts Stadium, Henderson: January 26 2012 (2014) Digital Video, Sound, 1.52min
“What are we? Mind, Economy, Weather?” Using a transcription of a 2012 speech by Prime Minister John Key the artist re-works common political phrases into pseudo-poetry.
Sonya Lacey, Infinitesimals (2016) Digital Video, Sound, 7.00min
In a foundry a series of letters are cast in lead type. Later, in a homeopaths laboratory, samples are taken from the surface of the letters, which are then converted into remedies designed to treat the symptoms of lead poisoning, including slowness of ‘perception’, ‘movement’ and thought.
Jordana Bragg, wherever our river ran ( i ran to, i ran too) (2016) Digital Video, Sound, 3.00min
In a series of abrupt cuts of memory, action and location, the artist delivers spoken word recollections of adolescence, reflecting on trauma in the suburbs and home.
Martin Rumsby, Eye I Aye (2014) Digital Video, Sound, 10.00min
"At some point in their lives, most people choose energy and application…”. Now in their forties, Dida and Erana have lived on the streets in Manurewa since they were ten years old. Rumsby’s camera waits for Dida and Erena to take up their daily place of residence on a public bench in the Manurewa shopping precinct. Rumsby pauses midway to consider the making of his film as an act of labour.