I Declare a Thumb War (2020)
2K video, 5 minutes, looped
I Declare a Thumb War is a re-enactment of a propaganda photograph from the beginning of the so-called ‘war on terror’ era. The image, depicting a soldier playing a friendly ‘thumb war’ game with a child, originates from an official military webpage. The work re-stages this absurd state-sanctioned image—a false utopian ideal and orientalist fantasy—imagining it as a veteran’s trauma.
Francois Truffaut famously once said “there’s no such thing as an anti-war film”, as cinema by its very nature glorified conflict. However, by subverting the language of contemporary war cinema this repetitive act questions the ideology that started the era of perpetual war.
Cinematography: Christiaan van Leeuwen & Andreas Drosdz
Production Design: Marcus van Binsbergen
Sound Design: Filip Degernäs
Titles: Stefanie Vogl
Supported by: Creative Scotland & The Piet Zwart Institute
Upcoming Screening: Nederlands Fotomusuem, Rotterdam, May 27th, 2o21
Divided Together (2018)
HD video, 04:45, looped
“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ” ― George Orwell, Politics and the English Language (1946)
Divided Together portrays the leader of an ideologically ambiguous government while he has an awkward and leering interaction with a make-up artist who is preparing him for his televised address to a newly-invaded country. The work deconstructs the spectacle of the political arena to show how power plays out on a micro and macro level. If politicians are actors, the obscene is their mise-en-scène.
Writers: Ewan Macbeth & Tom Roberts
Cinematography: Zhibin Quin
Editing: Lotte Louise de Jong
Sound Design: Salvador Miranda
Titles: Andreas Drosdz
Supported by EYE Filmmuseum
Mass Production (2016)
HD video, 4-channels, 15 minutes, looped
Mass Production is a video installation that shows four perspectives of a newspaper printing press, shot in unbroken long takes. Filmed within Euronews, the largest newspaper printing factory in the world, this set is just a small fraction of the News Corp empire, which is owned by billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Over the course of the 15-minute video installation we witness the making of 60,000 newspapers. In order to both appreciate and reduce its size and power, the factory is portrayed in a series of details.
Cinematography: Jack McCombe
Sound Design: Filip Degernäs
