Slide Show (2022)
An open studio event hosted by Holly Rose O’Brien as part of a HO.RR collective with Rachael Ryder at Studio Pavilion
Saturday 23rd July, 12:00—20.00
Moving image, installation, publication (15 mins & 26 mins on loop)
Slide Show is an interim open studio event presenting work and research into moving image as an unfixed, impressionable and deceiving form. The show explores how film captures ephemeral moments which, in turn, can be reworked, manipulated, or exaggerated to produce something entirely different from the original image.
In the Box Room, there is a slide projector for visitors to flick through slides. There are cards
placed above the window that correspond to each slide and tell the anonymous photos’ story, based on memories and make believe. In the Project Room, there is a publication that echoes the shape of the slide carousel. A story slide is placed in each of the slots.
The Benches of Arbroath (working title) plays in the project room. It is a visual research journal from a residency period at Hospitalfield in Arbroath. The film captures moments of discovery while in residency and the desire for a sense of place, when one's surroundings have changed. Audio of sliced voice messages from a friend cut in and out of the film as an intimate reminder of home.
A screening of Gabriella Davies’ short film Blue Italian will take place in The Cinema. The film explores Italian migration to the midlands through her late Nonno’s 8mm home videos. Using his narration alongside clips from TV and film, this piece illustrates the gap between the romanticised images of Italians in popular culture and the harsh, overlooked reality of working-class industrial migration.
Gabriella Davies is a working-class, trans artist based in the UK. She makes films, music, collages and installations. She is also an Associate Artist with Babeworld. Her research focuses on tropes and conventions,
particularly within trans, Italian and working class cultures. Through this lens, she aims to dissect how we represent ourselves in a way that holds personal experiences, the communities we are part of, and our histories of representation. Her work has been described as an exploration of archival materials but she is not particularly interested in that. She is partial to old consumer film and video formats for their propensity for nostalgia, sentimentality.
