Fusing art and film: Cornerhouse (and HOME) Artist Film

The latest film in the Cornerhouse Artist Film (CAF) – Jamie Shovlin’s Rough Cut – may be newly released, but Kevin Bourke finds that there are already plans for more.

Sarah Perks. Photo: Rebecca LuptonRough Cut is an extension of Jamie Shovlin’s Hiker Meat, a project about a fictitious exploitation film that
the artist has worked on for years,” explains Cornerhouse’s Sarah Perks. “It has just been accepted into the Rotterdam International Film Festival, while the spin-off exhibition explores the various levels on which it works, from Jamie’s initial props and posters, slipping into the world of Rough Cut, and including a new version of the immersive installation we premiered in Toronto.”

Jamie Shovlin’s project is deliberately complex, mixing real and made-
up film, documentary and visual
art – and is also one of several CAF projects in the pipeline. “We have a film by Bob and Roberta Smith coming up called The Art Party,” says Perks. “It’s a political statement about arts education, its relationship to the National Curriculum and
how we need to celebrate the importance of art. It’ll be released on GCSE results day; we’re encouraging venues to hold their own Art Party that day.”

Subconscious Society (2013) [Manchester]

Next up is Rosa Barba’s Subconscious Society, which Cornerhouse regulars will remember from Barba’s dual installation in Manchester and Margate last
year. “Rosa wanted the project to reflect changes in society and the move from analogue to digital, with both an interior and an exterior visualization of that,” says Perks. “In Manchester, we called for people to tell us their stories of the Albert Hall, taking them into the then-derelict building and exploring new ideas of society.” Those conversations were recorded on some of the last Fuji 35mm film ever produced, the obsolete film becoming a comment on the transition into the digital age. These interior shots contrast with landscape footage recorded
 at Margate, with Rosa Barba also filming in New York and Texas. “She’ll come back to Manchester to do some more audio – together, it’ll make up what will be the fifth film under the CAF banner,” says Perks of what promises to be an intriguing, ongoing series.

Cornerhouse Artist Film will continue in the new guise of HOME Artist Film when the organisation moves in 2015.