Wednesday 22nd February - Talk at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds

This Wednesday, Chris and Jo will give a presentation on the Unravel project so far, as part of the Henry Moore Institute's Peripherique artist-led event series: 

As well as screening some of the raw 16mm hand-painted footage and a section of the digitised 16 hour film (with edited soundtrack), Chris and Jo will be talking about the project in relation to their own filmmaking practice and ideas relevant to the project, including collaboration, participation and a discussion around using film in a contemporary context.
The talk will run from 6-8pm on Wednesday 22nd February in the HMI Seminar Room. 
Free, no booking necessary.  Hope to see you there!

Saturday 18th February at Colchester's Firstsite

We had a great day at Firstsite last saturday in Colchester with a very busy workshop and well attended screening of the edited unravel films in the Auditorium. A full write up coming very soon but in the mean time here's some pictures from the day...

A quick round up of events coming up in February...

Following our successful screening and workshop event at the IKON Gallery we will be running a similar event at Firstsite in Colchester on Saturday 18th February. This brand new building as a centre for contemporary visual art opened in September last year so we are thrilled to be bringing Unravel to Essex for the first time.  Chris and Maria are running the workshop from 11am - 1pm and 2pm-4pm with a screening at 4pm, our edited highlights will also be playing in a seperate gallery space throughout the day.

Chris will also be running an Unravel event on Wednesday 15th February in Ambleside at the Kelsick Centre from 2.30pm - 5.30pm.  This is a special workshop made in conjunction with work Chris is developing for an exciting group show in late March at the Armitt Gallery, Museum and Library  in Ambleside co-curated by Russell Mills of which more details will be released soon.

Chris and Jo will be in discussion on Unravel in the evening of Wednesday 22nd of February at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds as part of the Peripherique series of artists' talks. We will be showcasing the various formats and processes of the project alongside our own perspectives on using analogue film in the digital age. The event is free and runs from 6pm - 8pm. Don't forget to check out OKO's own blog for Mark and Jo's latest activities.

Finally(!) our friend Sam Meech is running a direct film workshop on Saturday 11th February at St Helen's Library in Liverpool from 11- 3 as well as an iMovie workshop in the iHub. Chris might be joining in if he can make it over but it should be a great event regardless. 

Wrap up warm everyone!

Workshop and Installation at IKON Gallery 7th and 8th of January 2012

On saturday 7th and sunday 8th of January we returned, exactly one year to the day since our last visit, to the IKON Gallery in Birmingham to present edited highlights of the completed Unravel films so far in a temporary installation located on the first floor.

 The saturday also saw us deliver another workshop within the gallery space and utilising the entire second floor (quite literally in one of the rooms) that attracted a large crowd of new participants as well as a few returning  faces.  It was fantastic to be run the workshops within the exhibition spaces, which currently are showing works by Stuart Whipps, Dean Kelland and John Myers. We really had a fantastic weekend and were incredibly well looked after by all of the IKON's excellent staff, especially Learning Co-ordinator, Emma Bowen who has now attended and hosted numerous Unravel events. It was also a pleasure to meet so many amazing people over the course of the weekend and couldn't have asked to start 2012 in a better way. Cheers

Installation at the IKON Gallery 7th and 8th January

This weekend we are screening Unravel at the IKON Gallery in Birmingham. From 11am until 6pm on Saturday and Sunday as well as a workshop from 1 - 4 pm on the saturday.

In January 2011, IKON Gallery and the IKON insiders education programme hosted one of the eighty national workshops entitled Unravel – the longest hand painted film in Britain, where participants were invited to paint, scratch and directly manipulate 16mm film.

Harking back to the direct animation techniques of Len Lye, Norman McLaren and Stan Brakhage these marked traces of multiple authors represent diverse demographics of the British people wherein each frame of the film represents one metre in the 874 mile distance between Land’s End and Jon O’Groats. Sound recordings, interviews and perspectives on each location have been collected and compiled– mapping a metaphorical journey through collective memory and identity. The collaged autobiographical oral accounts which speak of individual experience in different locations, times and spaces offer a non-linear, psycho-geographical exploration of the country made for and by the people of Britain.

Seasons Greetings from Unravel and our upcoming installation at the IKON Gallery in Birmingham

A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Yeeeeeeah! from all of us at Unravel, we can't quite believe how fast this year has gone but would like to thank each and every one one of our supporters, followers, hosts and participants for making 2011 a truly great year for us (search back through this blog's archive if you need any reminders of what we've been up to!).

We couldn't ask for a better start to 2012 though as we will be installing the edited work of our epic project at the IKON Gallery in Birmingham over the weekend of the 7th and 8th of January including a workshop hosted by Chris on the Saturday allowing another chance to add your finishing touches to the final film. It's an honour for us to return to the IKON to exhibit our project so hope to see plenty of you there!

Maria's 'Wild wild wilderness' show in Greece

Maria recently co-curated and exhibited in a show in Athens with fellow artist Eleni Bagaki. They've set up a seperate blog about it which is viewable here.