8
– 11 April 2004
ICA,
The Mall, London, SW1
SHORTLIST
SELECTED BY ALISON JACKSON AND SOPHIE FIENNES
“It is exciting
to see this new work. The image often speaks louder than the word - it
plays subtly, persists and re-visits. Prizes like this are a great incentive
for students to get their work seen and for the public to enjoy a greater
diversity of visual language.” Sophie Fiennes
“I am interested
in innovative new approaches; I believe there are some young and very
exciting filmmakers around today. It is a great pleasure to take part
in judging some of the best, thanks to the ICA and Beck’s.”
Alison Jackson
Beck’s
Bier and the ICA are delighted to announce the shortlist for the fifth
annual BECK’S FUTURES STUDENT PRIZE FOR FILM AND VIDEO –
the award for current art and film students, worth £5,000, which
is part of Beck’s Futures 2004, the UK’s most generous arts
award. This year’s shortlist has been selected by the artist Alison
Jackson and filmmaker Sophie Fiennes.
Established in 1999,
Beck’s Futures Student Prize for Film and Video profiles and supports
students of film and fine art at UK institutions, and gives them the chance
to have their work exhibited at the ICA, and to win up to £2,000.
The award is open to all final year and post-graduate students in these
disciplines, and follows an open submissions process.
This year’s
shortlist has been selected from over 200 submissions, confirming rising
reputation of the Beck’s Futures student awards. The shortlist aims
to showcase the best student work, and includes performance art, narrative
film, animation and documentary.
This
year’s eleven finalists are:
Margarita Vasquez
Ponte, Edinburgh College of Art: Never Been in a Riot; Thomas Hicks, Kingston
University: Circus X; Maria Rickards, Central St Martins: Untitled; Kieron
Dennis, Royal College of Art: Customised Bikes; Julian Mills Arnold, Ruskin
School of Drawing and Fine Art: La Ballerine; Chris Cornish, Slade School
of Fine Art: Tate Modern 2003; Vanessa Able, Slade School of Fine Art:
Dream Factory Part 1; Doug Fishbone, Goldsmiths College: The Ugly American;
Rose Butler, Sheffield Hallam University: Platform; Mark Boulos, National
Film and Television School: Jerusalem; Mahalia Belo, Central St Martins:
As I Count To Ten.
The short-listed works
will be on show at the ICA from 8-11 April. The winner will be announced
at the Beck’s Futures 2004 Awards Night on 27 April. The first prize
winner will receive £2,000, with a second prize of £1,000
and four runner-up prizes of £500 each.
Last year, Richard
Holgate, a final year student at Central St Martin’s won the top
prize of £2,000. He comments: “Since winning the prize my
work has undoubtedly received a heightened amount of attention. This has
enabled me to establish contacts and form relationships, some of which
have led to recent and forthcoming shows.”
Since winning, Richard
has shown work at Future Maps 03, London Institute Gallery, January 2004,
and featured in Ten of the Best, at the Deluxe Gallery, January 2004,
showcasing ten of the top London BA graduates of 2003.
ANDY
NEAL, CONSUMER MARKETING DIRECTOR, SCOTTISH COURAGE:
"Beck's involvement with contemporary arts over the last 19 years
has been at the heart of our success in the UK. As part of the Beck's
Futures programme, the Student Film and Video prize gives a fantastic
opportunity for young artistic talent and we are delighted to be supporting
it again in 2004."
PHILIP
DODD, DIRECTOR, ICA: "Alison Jackson and Sophie Fiennes,
in their own work, show us how various and unexpected film and video work
can be. They’ve selected a marvellously rude, and surprising set
of works this year. It’s a real treat.”
STUDENT
FILM AND VIDEO PRIZE JUDGES
ALISON
JACKSON
Artist Alison Jackson recently earned a cult following through BBC2's
Double Take series, which placed celebrity look-a-likes in compromising
situations. She has subsequently published a book, Public (Penguin, 2003),
which depicts ‘celebrities’ in similarly grainy, paparazzi-style
shots, creating seemingly real documentary scenarios which are in fact
a fiction. Among her subjects have been the royal family, movie stars,
sports and pop music personalities and politicians. Using real photos
but phoney images, Alison’s work is concerned with 'our fixation
with celebrity and celebrity culture, which have led us to believe things
via a set of images… the gap between the mythology and the real
thing’. She has won numerous prizes for her work, including gold
and silver Campaign advertising awards (for her Schweppes series), and
a BAFTA.
www.alisonjackson.com
SOPHIE
FIENNES
Sophie Fiennes is an experimental documentary filmmaker, interested in
the blurred boundaries between reality and fiction. First working as a
photographic assistant, Sophie has since worked with Peter Greenaway on
a number of his seminal films, including The Cook, The Thief, His Wife
and Her Lover. She also won acclaim for her 1998 short about Danish film
director Lars Von Trier. Her recent documentary, Hoover Street Revival,
which concerns evangelical Baptist preacher Bishop Noel Jones (brother
of Grace) has received critical praise. Sophie is currently completing
a three-year research fellowship with NESTA, exploring these interests
in the light of new digital technology advances.
www.nesta.org.uk/ourawardees/profiles/1775/index.html
Further information
on Beck's Futures 2004 and the Student Prize for Film and Video, past
and present, can be obtained from www.becksfutures.co.uk/studentprize
* This year’s short-listed student films will also be available
to view online here.
Tickets &
Box Office Information: 020 7930 3647 / www.ica.org.uk
Entrance to Student
Films is free with entry to the Beck’s Futures exhibition in the
main ICA galleries: Mon – Fri: £1.50, £1.00 Concs. FREE
to ICA members; Sat & Sun: £2.50, £1.50 Concs. FREE to
ICA members
INFORMATION ON SHORTLISTED WORKS
 Margarita
Vazquez Ponte (Edinburgh College of Art)
NEVER BEEN IN A RIOT
Part documentary, part spectacle, the film follows the development of
an anti-war demonstration in Madrid (22/03/03), that starts peacefully
and escalates into a riot between police and protestors. The event was
reported to have passed without incident. The film jumps from split to
full screens.
 Thomas
Hicks (Kingston University)
CIRCUS X
Humorous b&w animation, intercutting layered photographic imagery
with frenetic circus-style drawings.
 Maria
Rickards (Central St Martins)
UNTITLED
Mirror performance in which the artist experiments with filming herself
by tying the video-camera to the top of her head.
 Kieron
Dennis (Royal College of Art)
CUSTOMISED BIKES
Series of still images featuring different customised bikes in various
locations, with electronic voice-over narrative.
 Julian
Mills Arnold (Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art)
LA BALLERINE
Split screen. The artist copies a dance sequence from the final scene
of Claire Denis' film Beau Travail, performed by Denis Lavant. The original
film is shown on one side of the screen, the artist on the other. The
sequence is repeated over and over until the artist is almost perfectly
synchronised with the actor.
 Chris
Cornish (Slade School of Fine Art)
TATE MODERN
Emulation of a smouldering, burnt out building, reminiscent of Tate Modern,
and set within an illusory woodland environment.
Vanessa Able (Slade School of Fine Art)
DREAM FACTORY PART 1
Kaleidoscopic
treatment of footage taken from the movie Black Hawk Down, oscillating
between abstract and recognisable images, evoking the quality of a computer
game. First of a 3-part work.
 Doug
Fishbone (Goldsmiths College)
THE UGLY AMERICAN
Series of still images with narrative voice-over, depicting often violent,
disturbing and provocative subject matter whilst addressing issues of
politics, sexuality, race, prejudice, stigma, poverty and domestic violence.
 Rose
Butler (Sheffield Hallam University)
PLATFORM
Re-animated video of passengers moving along a train platform, digitally
manipulated and presented as a three-screen installation to reinforce
the elements of rhythm and repetition.
 Mark
Boulos (National Film and Television School)
JERUSALEM
Documentary-style footage of Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri - one of the most
distinctive radical Islamic figures in Britain – during a small
rally in London. The soundtrack is a rendition of William Blake’s
Jerusalem sung in Arabic.
 Mahalia
Belo (Central St Martins)
AS I COUNT TEN
Humorous animation based on the process of hypnosis, relating fantastical
images to the experience of ‘going under’.
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