Film London Jarman Award | Screening and Q&A with Rehana Zaman

LUX Scotland is delighted to host the Film London Jarman Award for the fifth year, presenting a screening of the shortlisted artists’ works and a Q&A with shortlisted artist Rehana Zaman at CCA cinema at 6:30pm on Tuesday, 24 October.

The artists shortlisted for the 2023 Film London Jarman Award are: Ayo Akingbade, Andrew Black, Julianknxx, Sophie Koko Gate, Karen Russo, and Rehana Zaman.

From surreal animated worlds to filmic explorations of landscape and community, the 2023 Film London Jarman Award showcases the urgency, creativity, and humour of exciting new approaches to the moving image.

Whether located in a Hackney council block or a Guinness factory in Nigeria, Ayo Akingbade​’s intimate and playful films reflect the influence of place on a personal sense of identity, while Andrew Black works in close collaboration with local communities to uncover complex political histories hidden beneath the surface of the British countryside.

Experimental animator Sophie Koko Gate transforms familiar angsts and desires into dreamlike stories and psychedelic worlds, from a curious woman who has developed a taste for slugs as lovers to a fantastical holiday-romance film made during lockdown. Karen Russo​’s work focuses on marginalised characters, obscure buildings and forgotten moments from the 20th century, allowing us to reflect on the political, religious and cultural power structures that shape our understanding of history.

Empathy and community are at the heart of Rehana Zaman​’s practice. Developed in collaboration with a group of women affected by the UK Government’s Hostile Environment Policy and prison system, Zaman’s recent work captures the perseverance of love and solidarity through experiences of trauma. In his practice, Julianknxx explores the multiple realities of black lives, from a poetic documentary that highlights the disproportionate impact of air pollution on working class citizens in London to a cinematic return to the artist’s birthplace of Freetown in Sierra Leone.

The artists shortlisted for the 2023 Film London Jarman Award create work characterised by a sense of resilience and joy, creating new visual languages and fresh perspectives on often tough and complex subjects.

Accessibility

Works will be captioned, Q&A will be live captioned.

Programme

6:30pm – Introduction

6:35pm – Rehana Zaman, 'Alternative Economies' (2021) 28 mins

7:05pm – Q&A with Rehana Zaman

7:50 – comfort break

8pm – Jarman Award shortlist screening (65 mins)

Ayo Akingbade, 'Jitterbug' (2022) 24 mins

Karen Russo, 'Junkerhaus' (2021), 7 mins

Sophie Koko Gate, 'Hotel Kalura' (2021) 5 mins

Julianknxx, 'Black Corporeal (Breathing By Numbers)' (2022) 16 mins

Andrew Black, 'Revenge Fantasy' (2019) 13 mins

9:05pm – End

About the artist:

Rehana Zaman is an artist whose work speaks to notions of kinship and sociality, seeking out possibilities of intimacy and transgression within hostile contexts. Conversation and cooperative methods sit at the heart of her films which extend into texts, performances and group work. She has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. Recent presentations include Serpentine Projects, London (forthcoming); Tromsø Kunstforening; BEK – Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts; British Art Show 9 (touring); ICA Miami; Trinity Square Video, Toronto; Hammer Museum, LA; Borås International Sculpture Biennial, Sweden and Artist Film International Whitechapel (worldwide touring).

ABOUT THE SHORTLISTED ARTISTS FOR THE FILM LONDON JARMAN AWARD 2023

Ayo Akingbade is an artist, writer and director. She works predominantly with film and installation addressing themes of power, urbanism and stance. Her work has been shown at the Whitechapel Gallery, London; ICA, London and Towner Gallery, Eastbourne. Recent screenings include; New Directors/​New Films; MoMA and Directors’ Fortnight; Cannes Film Festival. Her first major solo institutional exhibition, ​‘Show Me The World Mister’, opened at Chisenhale Gallery in November 2022 and is touring until 2024, venues include Spike Island, Bristol and BALTIC, Centre for Contemporary Art.

Andrew Black is an artist and filmmaker. He studied at Leeds College of Art and the Glasgow School of Art. His films are portraits of places to which he has a biographical attachment and look at how capitalism, militarism and nationalist ideologies intrude into and shape the land and its inhabitants and how communities imagine themselves in relation or opposition to this. He was the 2021 recipient of the Margaret Tait Award, and his commissioned film On Clogger Lane premiered at Glasgow Film Theatre in February 2023, and will show at Lux, London in 2024. His work has shown at CCA Glasgow, Dundee Contemporary Arts and Centre Clark, Montreal.

Julianknxx​’s practice merges his poetic work with performance, film and music, seeking to express the ineffable realities of human experiences while examining the structures through which we live. Julianknxx draws on West African oral traditions to reframe how we construct both local and global perspectives. Julianknxx has exhibited and performed in the UK and internationally at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Gulbenkian, Lisbon and Stedelijk Museum, Netherlands. Upcoming exhibitions and performances will take place at Art Basel, Basel, (2023); Barbican Centre, London (2023) and Tate Modern, London (2023), with more to be announced.

Sophie Koko Gate studied at Central St Martins and the RCA, London. She is an artist and filmmaker who specialises in experimental narrative. She hosts her ideas through a recurring set of characters in a parallel universe that runs alongside our own. Her films have been screened at Tate Modern, London; Edinburgh Film Festival; Sundance Film Festival, Utah, USA; BFI London Film Festival; Tel Aviv Festival, Israel; Sydney Film Festival; London International Animation Festival and SXSW Austin Texas, USA. She has won awards at Ottawa Animation Festival, SXSW, GLAS Animation Festival and Indie Lisboa.

Karen Russo​’s work uses documentary and narrative in an exploration of how knowledge, perception, and culture intertwine the rational with the obscure. She has exhibited widely including Barbican Centre; Hayward Gallery Project Space; Tate Modern; Delfina; Towner, Eastbourne; Athens Biennial; the Israel Museum, Jerusalem and CCA Tel-Aviv. Her films have been screened in international film festivals such as Oberhausen, EMAF, Kasseler Dokfest and Alchemy Film Festival, and her work is included in collections such as the Arts Council and the Tel-Aviv Museum. Recent awards include Swedenborg Festival (2021) and Special Mention Award, Oberhausen Film Festival (2020).