Not to Scale
Winner of the Michael O'Pray Prize 2024 Bami Oke examines Garrett Bradley’s embodied video reflection on US culture
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Our projects are invariably accompanied by specially-commissioned texts, a selection of which are published here.
The Screen is a Drum
Michael O'Pray Prize 2024 awardee E De Zulueta explores the delirious resistance of Mexican filmmakers Colectivo los ingrávidos
Looking at Palestine
Michael O'Pray Prize 2024 awardee Nevan Spier views Palestine through the films of Mustafa Abu Ali and Elia Suleiman
A Blow to the Head: Boxing, Dreaming, Starving, and Surviving Loss in Sophie Cundale’s 'The Near Room'.
To accompany Sophie Cundale's The Near Room (2020) featuring on FVU Watch, writer and critic Maria Walsh reflects on the concept of the ‘clinch’ as depicted in the work.
Listening in the Dark
Steven Bode reflects on the intimate entanglement between the human species and the other life forms with whom we share the world, explored through Maeve Brennan's work Listening in the Dark (2018).
When will we need you
Writer Naomi Pearce reflects on themes of Death, the female archetype, and ideas of community in Lucy Beech's Me and Mine (2015).
The light plane over The Reflecting Pool
Steven Bode remembers the late Bill Viola through a rumination on his iconic The Reflecting Pool, one of the highlights of the FVU showcase of the artist’s work, ‘A Thoughtful Gaze’.
Memories of Memory Marathon
Read a newly developed text by FVU’s Associate Director Steven Bode reflecting on the production and timely context of Simon Pope’s Memory Marathon.
Another time. A different event.
Read author Sukhdev Sandhu's original text commissioned for Memory Marathon, reflecting on the impact of recollecting significant cultural events and the acoustic framework of memory
Some notes on proximity and distance
Originally commissioned in response to Webb-Ellis's For The First Baby Born in Space, writer Emily LaBarge expands on the work’s revelatory nature.
Encounters that Resonate: Foxfire Eins by Jayne Parker
Rosa reflects on Jayne Parker’s quartet of musical interventions in the present moment — exploring the power of non-verbal communication, gesture and dance.
Dangerous Transmissions: On Language, Agency and Voice(lessness)
Read Jinan Coulter’s new essay produced in response to our latest #FVUWatch feature Aphonia (2024) by Sophie Hoyle.
Excavating the Body
Awardee of the Michael O'Pray Prize 2023 Natasha Thembiso Ruwona explores Ashanti Harris’s Black Gold.
Sugar and Sand
Read Adam Bobbette's essay examining the granular connections explored through Gayle Chong Kwan's exhibition—bringing forth the historical and colonial ties between the Isle of Wight and Mauritius.
Training the Moon to Dance – A Meditation on Drumming
Antosh Wojcik's newly developed text draws on the visual and mechanical choreography performed in Sean Dower’s Automaton by the automated rig as it documents musician Steve Noble’s epic performance.
Circling Back
Read a newly developed text by writer and critic Martin Herbert, responding to the future-facing conspiracies of Daniel Cockburn’s recent FVU Commission Ahead of the Curve.