Exhibitions » Exhibition Archive » 2011 » Art in The Auditorium » Stephen Sutcliffe
Stephen Sutcliffe
7 March - 10 April 2011 in the Adam Gallery
Drawing on an extensive archive of VHS and audio recordings, Stephen Sutcliffe meshes soundtracks with moving images, editing and configuring new narratives. These often very short ‘video collages’ are fabrics of rich and disjointed borrowings, consisting of written and spoken word, found broadcast images, animation and music. His work references moments of British cultural history, from the English pastoral tradition of poets like Thomas Hardy and Algernon Charles Swinburne, to the class-conscious satire of Alan Bennett and Monty Python, from music by The Smiths to that of classical composers. These concerns collide with an interest in the pre-digital VHS aesthetic of the media, appropriation, and ideas of original material.
Alongside eight short video works, the programme includes Sutcliffe’s recent video Despair, 2009. This work is based on Vladimir Nabokov’s 1934 novel (of the same name) which involves murder, double and mixed identities. Sutcliffe’s work includes extracts from German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1978 adaptation of Despair, and American film director Kenneth Anger’s Eaux d’Artifice, 1953, an interview with Fassbinder, and a 17th century Baroque soundtrack.
British artist Stephen Sutcliffe was selected by the Whitechapel Gallery as part of the international programme Art in the Auditorium. Sutcliffe, who was born in 1968, studied at the Jordanstone College of Art and Design and Glasgow School of Art; currently he lives and works in Glasgow. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at Cubitt, London, 2009; Nought to Sixty, ICA, 2008 and Art Now/Lightbox, Tate Britain, 2005. Group shows include the Zenomap Performance Space at the Venice Biennale, 2003 and the British Council touring show, Electric Earth, 2003. He was shortlisted for the Jarman Award in 2009 and he was commissioned by Frieze Projects to present a new film work during Frieze Art Fair, October 2010.
Stephen Sutcliffe Whitechapel Gallery, London
DVD
Duration 25:22 minutes
Works courtesy Micky Schubert, Berlin and Rob Tufnell
List of works:
Stephen Sutcliffe
Despair (17:22 minutes)
2009
Video
Deleuze un Album (0:23 minutes)
2009
Video
Said the poet to the analyst (1:19 minutes)
2009
Video
The Garden of Proserpine (2:08 minutes)
2008
Video
Six Essential Books (1:34 minutes)
2008
Video
Vacillation (0:35 minutes)
2008
Video
We’ll Let You Know (0.58 minutes)
2008
Video
‘O come all ye faithful’ (0.47 minutes)
2007
Video
Come to the Edge (1.36 minutes)
2003
Video
All works courtesy Micky Schubert, Berlin and Rob Tufnell.