aemi is delighted to partner with Pálás Cinema in Galway to present ‘Signals & Circuits’, a programme of contemporary moving image works by Irish and international artists Jenny Brady (IE), Jussi Eerola (FI), Laura Fitzgerald (IE), John Smith (UK), Deborah Stratman (USA) and Yoga For The Eyes (IE)
Taking the ‘circuit’, with all of its possible meanings, as a conceptual framework, the programme purposefully complicates interconnected ideas relating to communication, travel and technology, highlighting films in which intimate or ordinarily private thoughts are vocalised and acts of speaking or mis/over-hearing, particularly in recorded form, take on significances other than those originally intended. This gives rise in several instances to concerns about illicit societal control and surveillance but ultimately ‘Signals & Circuits’ emphasises the political and cultural value of speaking out, either to express an inner voice or strengthen the power of collective struggle.
aemi Co-Director Alice Butler will introduce the films at this in-person screening event at Pálás Cinema.
‘Signals & Circuits’ film info:
Jussi Eerola, Blue Honda Civic, 2020, 11 min, Finland
Laura Fitzgerald, P45, 2017, 16:10 min, Ireland
Michelle Doyle, Eva Richardson-McCrea & Cóilín O’Connell with Jenn Moore, Yoga For The Eyes, 2018, 24:12, Ireland
John Smith, A State of Grace, 2019, 3:23 min, UK
Deborah Stratman, Hacked Circuit, 2014, 15:08 min, U.S.A.
Jenny Brady, Receiver, 2019, 14:36 min, Ireland
Jussi Eerola, Blue Honda Civic
Inspired by Romantic landscape painting, which often portrayed weather conditions, unpopulated terrain, religious themes and hunting scenes, Blue Honda Civic is a minimalistic road movie mirroring the emotions of the driver
Laura Fitzgerald, P45
While walking through the local landscape, the artist’s inner voice is heard speculating, at a frenzied pace, on where all the artists have disappeared to and why much of the rural psychogeography around her feels like a scene from David Markson’s novel ‘Wittgenstein’s Mistress’
Yoga For The Eyes
Originally made for Open Ear Festival in Baltimore, Cork, this video assemblage uses archival footage, diagrams and animated objects to recount a non-linear exploration of free parties, festivals, riots and Celtic mysticism. A work by Michelle Doyle, Eva Richardson-McCrea & Cóilín O’Connell featuring a soundtrack by Jenn Moore
John Smith, A State of Grace
Inspired by conceptual art & structural film, John Smith body of work subverts boundaries between documentary and fiction. In A State of Grace, enigmatic diagrams and Smith’s poor hearing on a flight to Ireland trigger a radical interpretation of Ryanair’s safety instructions
Deborah Stratman, Hacked Circuit
While portraying a Foley artist at work on a scene from American film director Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘The Conversation’, typically invisible support mechanisms of filmmaking are exposed, as are, by extension and quotation, governmental violations of individual privacy, thereby revealing multiple layers of fabrication and imposition
Jenny Brady, Receiver
A crossed telephone line propels Receiver into a suite of heated and intimate conversations in which we encounter scenes of protest at a university for deaf students, Q&A cross-fire interrogation, vocal confrontations and lip-reading practice. In its various moods the film presents a heady and multi-layered assemblage of Deaf history, drawing on research into The Milan Conference of 1880 which led to a ban on teaching sign language in schools for the deaf. In considering how we both speak and listen, Receiver reveals communication to be a violent and fragile operation
‘Signals & Circuits’ is aemi’s curated touring programme 2021. More info on the tour is available here
