Thursday, April 8, 6pm |Emily Wardill in person!
- Still from “Ben” (Emily Wardill, 2007). Courtesy the artist and LUX.
The films of British artist Emily Wardill are brilliant cinematic labyrinths. Visually striking and playfully rigorous, they draw upon an array of sources– underground theater, psychoanalytic case studies, the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and Jacques Rancière, and even the game logic of Nintendo Wii–to pose fundamental questions about vision, representation, and media and their role in how we come to know ourselves. Wardill has been the recipient of much recent critical acclaim: Tate Modern film curator Stuart Comer rated her film The Diamond (Descartes’ Daughter) (2008) as one of his top ten picks of 2008 and The Guardian newspaper deemed her its “artist of the week.” In this special program, Wardill presents five of her short films, all of which are Chicago premieres: Born Winged Animals and Honey Gatherers of the Soul (2005), Basking in What Feels Like ‘An Ocean Of Grace’ I Soon Realise That I’m Not Looking at It, But Rather I Am It, Recognising Myself (2006), Ben (2007), Sick Serena and Dregs and Wreck and Wreck (2007), and The Diamond (Descartes’ Daughter). Co-presented by CATE and Refracted Lens, a Chicago-based film series dedicated to showcasing emerging and underrepresented artists. Emily Wardill, 2005-08, United Kingdom, 16mm, ca. 60 min (plus discussion).
Wardill will present her debut feature film, Game Keepers Without Game, on Friday, April 9 at 6pm, at SAIC’s graduate student-run series, Eye & Ear Clinic (112 S. Michigan Ave, MacLean Theater Room 1307, free and open to the public).
EMILY WARDILL (b. 1977, Rugby, England) lives and works in London. She received a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) from Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design in 2000, where she is currently a senior lecturer. Her new feature film, Game Keepers without Game (2009), was exhibited at The Showroom, London, in February 2010. She will have solo shows at De Appel, Amsterdam, and Spacex, in Exeter, UK, later in the year. Other solo exhibitions include Picture This, Bristol; Fortescue Avenue/Jonathan Viner, London; Nassauischer Kunstverein Wiesbaden, Germany; STANDARD, Oslo; and Fulham Palace, London. Wardill has contributed to a number of group exhibitions at the ICA, London (2007); Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, Sunderland, UK (2005); Espace Electra, Paris (2005); PS.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York (2004); and the Freud Museum, London (2004). Her work has been screened at the Art Now Lightbox, Tate Britain; the International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Witte de With, Rotterdam; and the London Film Festival. Wardill is the recipient of the first ever Follow Fluxus After Fluxus grant (2008), as well as the Film London Artist Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) Bristol Mean Time residency (2007), and she was shortlisted for the 2008 Jarman Award. She is part of the creative group, Boxing Club, and assists in the coordination of the performance, live music, and screening event, Itchy Park.