Spike Island

The Blackboy Clock, which incorporates a wooden blackamoor figure in its design, was originally assembled by a Gloucestershire watchmaker in 1774, during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. Relocated to a specially constructed niche on the front of a former schoolhouse in 1844, the clock has undergone restorations in 1977 and 2004 and has remained a constant presence throughout Dan Guthrie’s life in Stroud. Rotting Figure is one of two newly commissioned videos that put forward the ‘radical un-conservation’ of the clock—a new theoretical concept proposed by Guthrie to describe the acquisition of an object with the express intent to destroy it. Central to this new body of work are questions about what society chooses to memorialise and how we do so.

The Blackboy Clock, which incorporates a wooden blackamoor figure in its design, was originally assembled by a Gloucestershire watchmaker in 1774, during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. Relocated to a specially constructed niche on the front of a former schoolhouse in 1844, the clock has undergone restorations in 1977 and 2004 and has remained a constant presence throughout Dan Guthrie’s life in Stroud. Empty Alcove is one of two newly commissioned videos that put forward the ‘radical un-conservation’ of the clock—a new theoretical concept proposed by Guthrie to describe the acquisition of an object with the express intent to destroy it. Central to this new body of work are questions about what society chooses to memorialise and how we do so.

Decades after an eco-disaster engulfs the biblical city of Bethlehem, two scientists from different generations discuss memory, exile and nostalgia in this symbolic speculative fiction.

A poetic meditation on the history of runaway enslaved persons in 18th century Britain, exploring notions of fugitivity and the challenges of reconstructing lesser-known histories when archives provide limited information.

As anti-Muslim attacks are on the rise in Brexit Britain, Imran Perretta lends his voice to disaffected Muslim youth who the United Kingdom continues to treat as a threat. In this two-screen group testimonial on their troubled upbringing, the young men reclaim their politicised bodies as an instrument to make their own percussive music.

The Drift traces the shifting economies of objects in contemporary Lebanon. The film moves between three main characters: the gatekeeper of the Roman temples of Niha in the Beqaa Valley; a young mechanic from Britel, a village known for trading automobile parts; and an archaeological conservator working at the American University of Beirut.