Rachel Maclean, still from Feed Me (2015). Photo: © Rachel Maclean, 2015.
Film London, in association with Channel 4 and Whitechapel Gallery, announced on Friday the shortlist for this year’s prestigious Jarman Award.
This year’s finalists are: Sophia Al Maria, Cécile B. Evans, Shona Illingworth, Mikhail Karikis, Rachel Maclean, and Heather Phillipson.
The annual prize recognizes the most innovative UK-based artists working with moving image, in keeping with Derek Jarman’s “spirit of experimentation, imagination, and innovation.”
The winner, who will be announced on November 28, will be awarded a £10,000 ($14,000) grant, as well as a commission from Channel 4 for its short film series dedicated to the arts, called Random Acts.
Sophia Al Maria, still from The Future Was Desert Part One (2016).
Since its nascence in 2008, the award has shortlisted artists including Marvin Gaye Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Elizabeth Price, Laure Prouvost, and Duncan Campbell, all of whom went on to either be shortlisted for or to win the Turner Prize.
Sophia Al Maria, still from How Can I Resist U (2012). Photo courtesy Jarman Awards.
Sophia Al Maria is a Qatari-American artist, writer, and filmmaker, whose work evokes the glitz of contemporary Arab culture and the ethical and environmental anxiety that accompanies globalization.
Cécile B. Evans, still from What the Heart Wants (2016). Image courtesy the artist.
Cécile B. Evans’ weird animations explore the human emotions of immaterial digital beings. Her film Hyperlinks or It Didn’t Happen stars a digital copy of Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Agnes, a ghost who lives on the Serpentine Gallery website.
Shona Illingworth, still from 216 Westbound (2014). Photo courtesy Jarman Awards.
Shona Illingworth makes films and installations rooted in her longstanding fascination with emerging models of memory. Her work combines landscape imagery with the experience of people who have suffered life-altering events.
Mikhail Karikis, still from Children of Unquiet (2013-2015). Photo courtesy Jarman Awards.
Mikhail Karikis creates immersive installations around the topic of the voice as a sculptural material and socio-political agent. His work showed recently at the Whitstable Biennale.
Rachel Maclean, still from Feed Me (2015). Photo courtesy Jarman Awards.
Rachel Maclean’s freaky satiric films will have you feeling as though you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole. Her vibrantly colored work in which she plays all the characters and uses clips from anything from TV talent shows to adverts and soap operas to create her “found sound” collages. She will represent Scotland at the 2017 Venice Biennale.
Heather Phillipson, still from 100% Other Fibres (2016). Photo courtesy Jarman Awards.
Heather Phillipson creates videos that speak of the cacophony of the contemporary experience of consumption, production and overflow. Her video art is encased in the vast playful sculptures she makes of dogs on trampolines, wheelbarrows, and giant feet.