Jerwood/FVU Awards 2020: Hindsight premieres two newly commissioned moving-image installations by artists Guy Oliver and Reman Sadani, the recipients of this seventh edition of the Awards. Responding to the theme of Hindsight, each artist explores the power of reflection through film-making, how ideas shift through time and generations, and the complex nature of hindsight itself.
Guy Oliver’s film, You Know Nothing of My Work, is a multi-chapter rumination on the cultural dilemma of the disgraced popular icon, the tension between a problematic past and a more enlightened present, and the role of the male voice in a post-Me Too era. The work, which is his biggest commission to date, develops Oliver’s established practice of mixing pop culture references with self-deprecating character performances and complex social issues.
Whilst Oliver’s film shows how hindsight can cast a harsh light on the past, Reman Sadani’s Walkout 1, reflects how a preoccupation with the past could be considered a privilege when faced with the challenges of the present. Walkout 1 is set in a city that has been shrouded in dust, setting the film in a post-crisis, desert-like cityscape. The poetic film explores the flaws of a society’s single viewpoint, in particular how a dominant ideology can be forced upon a younger generation.
Following a nationwide call for applications at the beginning of 2019, each artist was awarded £25,000 to develop significant new moving-image works with Film and Video Umbrella for exhibition at Jerwood Arts. The panel for the 2020 Awards consisted of: Irene Aristizábal, Head of Curatorial and Public Practice, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and Co-curator British Art Show 9 (2020); Steven Bode, Director, Film and Video Umbrella; Harriet Cooper, Head of Visual Arts, Jerwood Arts; and Shezad Dawood, artist.
The Jerwood/FVU Awards are a major opportunity for moving-image artists run in partnership by Jerwood Arts and FVU. They were established in 2012 in response to a need for significant major commissions for early-career moving-image artists at an unproven stage in their practice, and contribute to an ongoing dialogue around urgent or timely concerns within moving image.
