Mark Neville: The Jump Films

Feb. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- Mark Neville: The Jump Films

5 March - 8 April 2010, Reg Vardy Gallery, University of Sunderland

CIRCA Contemporary Art Projects presents an exhibition by British artist, Mark Neville, whose lens-based works have been realised and exhibited internationally, in a large array of forms and contexts, as both still and moving image pieces.

The exhibition will show a new HD presentation of The Jump Films, previously installed in their original 16mm form as part of Glasgow International 2006, and also featured in both 'A Century of Artists' Film in Britain' at Tate Britain, and 'RunningTime: Artist Film in Scotland since 1960' at the Dean Gallery, Edinburgh.

Neville's other film works have also screened in exhibitions at  Kunstmuseum Bern, La Casa Encendida Madrid, and Tramway, Glasgow, whilst his photographic work was recently on display as part of the exhibition 'Parrworld', which toured internationally at venues including Haus Der Kunst, Munich; Jeu de Paume, Paris; and BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.

The exhibition shows Neville's work in a new light, and forms part of the exhibitions programme of AV Festival 10: Energy; international festival of electronic arts, running from 5 – 14 March at venues across NewcastleGateshead, Middlesborough and Sunderland.

The show runs from 5 March – 8 April, at Reg Vardy Gallery, Sunderland.  

Join us for the preview of The Jump Films on Tuesday 9th March 18.00-20.00, part of AV Late & Live, a high energy evening of special Festival openings across Sunderland.
Visit http://www.avfestival.co.uk/programme/10/highlights/late-... for full details.


Mark Neville's The Jump Films explores the relationship between performative art and the documentation that survives the event.  Our experience of performance art history from the 1960's and 70's is mostly confined to grainy, still images, taken from films or videos, in art history books.  By contrast The Jump Films document a series of three jumps, or falls, captured at thousands of frames per second, shot with a high-speed film camera that is normally used in scientific research or car-crash testing.  The notion was to employ scientific equipment to try to analyse something that could not be quantified scientifically; in this case the mythology of performance art.  The three films are shot in contradictory styles and at different speeds; The Jump Films, all self-performed, clearly reference heroic male performance art of the 1970's; one seems to portray an abortive suicide attempt, another references Pre-Raphaelite subject matter, and the third looks like an absurd Olympic event, or a Buster Keaton stunt.
Originally shot on 16mm film, taking advantage of state of the art high definition telecine techniques, this seminal piece of film installation will be shown for the first time in high-definition.

The exhibition aims to extend the dialogue surrounding Neville's work, considering how the re-staging or re-presenting of a performance can change the work. Here Neville's work will be recreated, not through re-staging the performance itself, but through updating the medium in which it is archived and presented.



This new HD presentation of The Jump Films interrogates how technology and digital media is used to continuously reframe and re-represent events of human exertion. Fifteen years on from the original performative 'jumps', the exhibition intends to question how scientific and digital technology is constantly revising and altering how we view archive footage.


On Tuesday 9th March at 3pm Mark Neville will give a public talk at the gallery. Neville’s lens-based works have been realised and disseminated in a large array of contexts, as both still and moving image pieces, as slide installations and coffee-table books.  Neville will talk about the ideas which inform his work, showing rarely seen films and photographs from his oeuvre. RSVP at rsvp@ccaprojects.org.uk.

Neville's work exists in different forms in several important collections, including those of the Arts Council of England, the Kunstmuseum Bern, National Galleries of Scotland, the Flemish Community, and Martin Parr. Neville has recently presented talks on his practice internationally at venues which include Harvard University and Whitechapel Art Gallery, and the work has been the subject of reviews and articles in art journals including Frieze, and Art Monthly.

He is currently engaged in a major new commission for the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, and his exhibition at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, 'Fancy Pictures', forms the basis of an interview and feature in the current edition of 'Source' magazine.

For more information and to secure places at the Artist Talk, please visit www.ccaprojects.org.uk


Part of AV Festival 10: Energy
International festival of electronic arts featuring visual art, music and moving image
5 – 14 March 2010
NewcastleGateshead, Middlesbrough, Sunderland
www.avfestival.co.uk

-ENDS-


Notes to editors

The Jump Films HD Project is a commission by
CIRCA Contemporary Art Projects

Exhibition curated by AV Festival10 & CIRCA Contemporary Art Projects:
Sam Watson and Adam Phillips

Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England,                                  
The Cannon Bill & Jeanette Hall Fund, and University of Sunderland

CIRCA Contemporary Art Projects is a non-profit arts orginisation based in the North East with a growing programme of contemporary art projects working with established and emerging international artists and curators.

Our public output is produced through an engaging programme of screenings, exhibitions, talks, commissions and workshops, Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England    


AV Festival 10: Energy is a biennial international festival of electronic arts, featuring
visual art, music and moving image. The festival takes place from 5-14 March 2010
across NewcastleGateshead, Middlesbrough, Sunderland. www.avfestival.co.uk

AV Festival 10 is organised by Audio Visual Arts North East, an independent
charitable company, it forms part of NewcastleGateshead's world-class festivals and
events programme managed Developed by culture10 (can you make the 10 superscript), based at NewcastleGateshead Initiative. .

AV Festival 10 is supported by: Arts Council England North East, One North East,
Middlesbrough Council, Sunderland City Council, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Tyneside Cinema, Northern Film &  Media, UK Film Council, PRS Foundation, and Big Lottery Fund.

AV Festival 10’s media partners are Wire and Little White Lies.                              


Curator, Sam Watson; Artist, Mark Neville and AV Festival Director, Rebecca Shatwell are all available for comment upon request

info@ccaprojects.org.uk
www.ccaprojects.org.uk

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CIRCA Contemporary Art Projects is a non-profit arts orginisation with a growing programme of international contemporary art. Our public output is produced through an engaging programme of screenings, exhibitions, talks, commissions and workshops.