2019.
Cinematography: Christiaan van Leeuwen + Andreas Drosdz
Production Design: Marcus van Binsbergen
Score: Nicolas Jaar
Written, Produced, Directed & Edited by Ewan Macbeth
I declare a Thumb War takes up established propaganda images from the so-called ‘War on Terror’ and, through their subversion, suggests ways of understanding it as an on-going neo-colonial narrative. This controversial history is exposed as an imperialistic game within the empire paradigm of Western domination.
Premiere: European Media Art Festival, 2020, Osnabrück
Supported by Creative Scotland & Piet Zwart Institute.
Divided Together
2018.
Writers: Ewan Macbeth / Tom Roberts
Cinematography: Zhibin Quin
Editing: Lotte de Jong
Sound Design : Salvador Miranda
“Political theatre is about showing the disconect between what is said, and what is done.” - Harold Pinter
Divided Together portrays the leader of an ideologically ambiguous government as he has an awkward and leering interaction with a make-up artist, followed by his televised address to a newly-invaded country.
The work illuminates the spectacle of the media and political arena to consider the absurdity and artificiality of contemporary politics. Politicians as actors; the obscene as mise en scène.
Divided Together was supported by and premiered at the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam.
Mass Production
HD Video, 4-Channels, 15 minutes, 2016.
Cinematography: Jack McCombe
Sound Design : Ewan Alston
Directed & Edited by Ewan Macbeth
Mass Production is a video installation that shows the printing cycle of the Financial Times from four unbroken long take shots. The factory is a small part of the News Corp empire, owned by mass media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
The same machine is also used to produce other right wing publications such as The Times, The Daily Mail and The Sun. Over the course of the 15-minute video installation we witness the making of 60,000 newspapers.
Hierarchies
Mixed Media Installation, 2016 - 2019
Hierarchies is an installation project that investigates the authoritarian global systems that use propaganda, data accumulation and violence to operate beyond legal or geographical framework.
Photographs that both subvert and embrace advertising aesthetics are shown alongside Stock Market data works, and video installations.
This project has been exhibited at Summerhall and The Royal Scottish Academy, and is currently being developed into a book.
Market Data
Inkjet prints, Construction Paper, Acrylic Box Frames, 2016 - 2018
Market Data is an archive of economic data and current events. Stock Market data is contextualised with images from the same day’s socio-political incidents. Companies, commodities and currencies share space with these events, placed on top of the digital information.
The project considers the economy of photography; taking mass produced images and then privileging them as unique works.