aemi & SIRIUS Commission 2022: Frank Sweeney – ‘2 Channel Land’

Published date: 10 Jun 2022

aemi is delighted to announce a new commission for 2022 offered for the first time in partnership with SIRIUS in Cobh, Co. Cork. The partnership between aemi and SIRIUS means the commissioned artist benefits from continued support and mentorship throughout the year from aemi and SIRIUS as well as a residency at SIRIUS.

aemi & SIRIUS’ commissioned artist in 2022 is Frank Sweeney. Frank has a research-based practice, using found material to approach questions of collective memory, experience and identity through film and sound. His recent film People enjoy my company screened widely at festivals and exhibitions internationally and his film All I believe happened there was vision was the inaugural work presented on ‘aemi online’ in July 2020 accompanied by an introductory text by Rebecca O’Dwyer. His collaboration with Eva Richardson McCrea, Made Ground, was purchased for the Arts Council Collection in 2021.

Frank’s commission, a film called 2 Channel Land, looks at the history of analogue radio and television signals spilling across the borders of Ireland and Britain. Blurring the line between narrative and documentary, the work explores the relationship between these transmissions and collective identities.

I am delighted and privileged to accept the aemi & SIRIUS film commission for 2022. As an emerging artist, it is invaluable to be given the freedom to experiment with new work with the continued support of these organisations. I cannot imagine sustaining an artist film practice in Ireland without the continued support of aemi over the past two years. The residency and the exhibition at SIRIUS are an opportunity to research and reflect on the project as well as present it in the wonderful surroundings of Cobh – Frank Sweeney

This commission is made possible through support from The Arts Council 

World Premiere screening at 67th Cork International Film Festival 2022
2 Channel Land will receive its World Premiere at the 67th Cork International Film Festival 2022 as part of ‘Figure Ground Perception’, a programme curated by aemi featuring further recent films by Christiana Perschon, Morgan Quaintance, Sky Hopinka and Fern Silva – aemi’s Artist-in Focus at CIFF.
3pm Saturday 19th November at The Gate Cinema, Cork + post-screening Q&A with Frank Sweeney and Fern Silva
More info & booking for ‘Figure Ground Perception’


Frank Sweeney, Film Artist

Related events

19 Nov 2022

aemi @ CIFF: Experimental Shorts 2 ‘Figure Ground Perception’

Images:

A colour headshot of Frank Sweeney, one of the film artists who will speak at aemi's upcoming online event 'Building a Practice in Artist Film'. Frank is a white man with short curly brown hair, wearing a black jumper. He is smiling and is sitting in front of a blank grey wall, light shines in from one side. The photograph is a polaroid and a white border frames the image.

Frank Sweeney, Film Artist

This is a still from the film '2 Channel Land' (2022) by Frank Sweeney. A person with strawberry blonde hair walks along an empty road that marks the border between two areas in Northern Ireland. The road's surface shifts from one shade of grey to another, clearly indicating the presence of a border line. It is a country lane is flanked by tall green bushes and trees on either side. The camera is positioned behind them, and there is a cloudy, grey-blue sky ahead. They are dressed in a white Stetson hat, sky-blue trousers, and an embellished sky-blue jacket with blue fringe on the sleeves. The jacket features an image of a radio transmitter on the back, surrounded by lightning bolts, a line drawing of the Irish border, clouds, grass, and soil.

Frank Sweeney, 2 Channel Land, 2022, Ireland, 15 mins, aemi/ Sirius Film Commission 2022, image courtesy of the artist



Supporting and Exhibiting Artists' and Experimental Moving Image in association with LUX, the Irish Film Institute and Temple Bar Gallery + Studios. Supported by the Arts Council.