14 October 2023 - 2 December 2023
Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray
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aemi & Mermaid Arts Centre present: Súitú

14 October 2023 / / Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray
In-person film installation in Bray, Co. Wicklow, showing until 2 December, free entry
This is a still from the film 'Contorno/ Contour' (2021) by Fábio Andrade. The image depicts an old stone wall that is predominantly in shades of grey, with various hues and textures. At the bottom of the wall, there is an abundance of green moss and a few small plants that cover most of its surface. In the middle of the image, there is a line of white snail shells resting on the mossy area at the base of the wall, positioned in a slightly alternating pattern from left to right. Above the shells, the wall continues towards the top of the image, with smaller patches of moss in some areas.

Fábio Andrade, Contorno/ Contour, 2021, image courtesy of the artist

aemi’s 2023 touring programme ‘Súitú’ screens as a fully captioned in-person film installation at Mermaid Arts Centre in Bray, Co. Wicklow – free entry

Friday, October 13th Opening Reception Schedule:
5:15 PM – 6:00 PM: Introductory talk with ‘Súitú’ featured artist Lisa Freeman in conversation with aemi co-director Daniel Fitzpatrick.
6:00 PM – 8:00 PM: Reception
All welcome.

Film info:

Fábio Andrade, Contorno/ Contour, 2021, Brazil, 10 mins
Susan Hughes, Eyes Like Cats, 2022, Northern Ireland, 3 mins
Morgan Quaintance, A Human Certainty, 2021, United Kingdom, 20 mins
Bárbara Lago, Yon, 2021, Argentina, 8 mins
Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Other Tidal Effects, 2021, USA, 7 mins
Lisa Freeman, Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out, 2020, Ireland, 3 mins
Holly Márie Parnell, Cabbage, 2023, Ireland, 28 mins
Running time: 80 minutes

‘Súitú’ – an Irish language term pronounced Suet-two – signifies the sucking in-and-out
sound made as the sea moves through stones at the shoreline, pulling them into water
before rolling them back onto dry land. Evoking the elemental, the programme’s pacing picks
up not just on the familiar ebbs and flow of the sea, but also the external forces that
circumscribe contemporary lived experience. From inner psychological journeys to the
phenomenological, the seven films in this programme together offer an emotional, embodied
and sensory experience.

Featuring work by Fábio Andrade (Brazil), Susan Hughes (Northern Ireland), Morgan
Quaintance (U.K.), Bárbara Lago (Argentina), Sofia Theodore-Pierce (U.S.A), Lisa Freeman
(Ireland) and Holly Márie Parnell (Ireland), ‘Súitú’ is an aemi programme that forms
connections between contemporary moving image work by Irish and international artists.
aemi is touring ‘Súitú’ to venues nationally and internationally across 2023.

Fábio Andrade, Contorno/ Contour
“Open the leaves I will see my body turned into flower.” – Gabriel Joaquim dos Santos

Susan Hughes, Eyes Like Cats
After an encounter with bioluminescent phosphorescence, a line of enquiry begins into how humans have made sense of mysterious natural occurrences throughout history.

Morgan Quaintance, A Human Certainty
The inevitability of separation, loss and death are explored through an introspectively written monologue and a selection of stills, moving images and written text.

Bárbara Lago, Yon
Using archive material from their childhood, Bárbara Lago re-programmes their childhood’s mythology and reflects on their body traversed by affections, fictions and the passing of time.

Sofia Theodore-Pierce, Other Tidal Effects
Catamenial seizures, tidal correspondences, a sonic EEG, and a lullaby in partial translation. Highlighting the seams with the darts. An exploration of epileptic rhythms and sensations through moving image practice.
“And there are other tidal effects, mysterious and intangible.” – Rachel Carson, The Edge of the Sea

Lisa Freeman, Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out
The work touches on things that are inflated: bills, lungs, bellies, airbags, egos.

Holly Márie Parnell, Cabbage
An intimate film made in collaboration with Parnell’s family, Cabbage looks at the complexities of bodily autonomy within an ableist paradigm. Through moments of reflection and observation, the film focuses on her brother’s writings using eye tracking technology, and her mother’s memories, to explore how we shape a sense of self under the pervasive weight of unspoken assumptions, categories and fixed definitions that get placed onto bodies. Dissecting layers of language, agency and power, the film is a subtle examination of how a human life is measured and valued.

‘Súitú’ is accompanied by a newly commissioned text by writer and film programmer Ruairí McCann, which is available to read here.

 

                         



Images:

This is a still from Sofia Theodore-Pierce's short film 'Other Tidal Effects' (2021), featuring handwritten materials on overlapping cyanotype treated postcards. In the top half, a pink transparent plastic sheet with water droplets is placed over spidery handwriting. To the top left of the frame, there is a ceramic snake placed on light green and blue paper. On the bottom left-hand side of the frame, there is a transparent red plastic sheet with water droplets. It sits on small pieces of dried seaweed, as well as partially visible handwriting and a pale yellow tinted postcard with a stamp. A snail poking its head out of its shell is also visible crawling on top of the postcard, left of centre. On the bottom right-hand side of the frame, there is a dark green transparent plastic sheet that partially overlaps some of the materials on the bottom left. Beneath everything, there is a mottled blue sheet of paper, which is visible in the top left corner and bottom right of the frame.

Sofia Theodore Pierce, Other Tidal Effects, 2021, image courtesy of the artist

Landscape image looking over a valley and snow topped mountains are in the background. The landscape is green and rocky, and houses are dotted around in the distance. Grey cloud hangs low over the mountains in the background

Susan Hughes, Eyes Like Cats, 2022, Northern Ireland, image courtesy of the artist

This is a still from the short film 'Cabbage' (2023) by Irish filmmaker Holly Márie Parnell. This image features a side angle view of a man's face with light skin and brown hair in a lightly shadowed space. A bright spot of daylight illuminates his left eye, and we can also see part of his cheek and nose in the frame in the light shadow as he looks upwards. The background displays out-of-focus green foliage and dappled light.

Holly Márie Parnell, Cabbage, 2022, Ireland, image courtesy of the artist

This is a still from the film ‘Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out’ (2020) by Irish filmmaker Lisa Freeman. The image depicts a solid neon green colour, with a blurred blue shape visible on the left side. On the right side, a digital letter W in a lighter shade of neon green appears to be floating, casting a shadow below itself.

Lisa Freeman, Hook, Spill, Cry Your Eyes Out, 2020, image courtesy of the artist

Bárbara Lago, Yon, 2021, image courtesy of the artist

Close up of the fingertips of a person with dark skin tracing a printed image of lightning striking above sky scrapers. Stylised text to the right of the printed image reads: Naked City

Morgan Quaintance, A Human Certainty, 2021, UK, image courtesy of the artist and LUX, London



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.