Gallery Online Screenings were a series of monthly film nights, using moving image and discussion to respond to exhibitions and objects within our collection.
The events were live-captioned by a stenographer and a transcript of each event was available alongside captioned recordings.
This gallery screening considered the role of archive film and self-representation. Filmmakers, like curators, have historically been the ‘voice’ of other cultures, presenting their view of a society as the ‘real’ story. But archive projects around the world have been trying to re-dress this.
Presentations from Emile Hertling Peronard, from Ánorâk Film and Nii Obodai, from Nuku Studios, Ghana.
Image © Stills from Inuiaat Isaat archive, Ánorâk Film
The event explored how filmmakers and artists have connected to, and with, whale’s bodies and the landscapes that they exist within.
Films included Fiona Tan’s Leviathan, Marina Rees’s Osseous Landscapes and Surface and an extract from Isuma TV’s Arviq! (Bowhead!).
After the screening, there was a Q&A with artists Marina Rees and Fiona Tan who’ll discuss their films and wider practice.
Fiona Tan is an internationally renowned artist and filmmaker. Her work is known for its skilled crafting and emotional intensity, which often explores the themes of identity, memory and history.
Marina Rees’s artwork is concerned with our experience and understanding of natural history. Drawing research material from fields such as natural sciences and social sciences, many of her projects involve working with museums or other collections.
Image © Fiona Tan, Leviathan, 2015, Courtesy the artist and Frith Street Gallery, London
The programme for this event responds to a journal and photographs from an 1892 trip to India by colonial traveller James Harrison. These objects from our collection offer a representation of India through an external and colonialist perspective.
This screening – a collaboration with filmmaker and cultural activist Suraj Prasad, co-founder of Lightcube, India – uses archival and contemporary artist’s moving images to re-think and consider how India has been, and continues to be, represented.
Films by Priya Thuvassery, Gautam Valluri, Suraj Prasad and Tarini Manchanda are part of the selection, and a Q&A with Suraj Prasad and Tarini Manchanda.
Image © Still From: Priya Thuvassery, Survey Number Zero, 2016
Looking at the sea as an element of marine paintings, The Sea Around Us featured six short films and audio recordings plus Q&A with artists Daniel & Clara, Hondartza Fraga and Amy Sharrocks (Museum of Water) about their own depictions of water/the sea and as an artistic subject.
Featuring films:
Forensic Oceanography, Liquid Traces: The Left to Die Boat Case (2012)
Daniel & Clara, EXT WAVES (2017)
Hondartza Fraga, Upon a Painted Ocean (2015)
Amy Sharrocks, The Water Museum (Audio) (Various Dates)
Image © still from Hondartza Fraga, Upon a Painted Ocean, 2015
This screening explored the idea of captive and extinct animals, and how film has been used to represent them.
We have a large collection of taxidermy animals locked away in the stores. Some of the species – The Great Bustard, Passenger Pigeons, Captain Cook Bean Snails and The Great Auk – are extinct largely through human intervention. Their bodies now rest, static and captive in the archives; they are ghosts of species, lost and haunted by the human actions that led to their demise.
Featuring films:
Bert Haanstra, Zoo (1961)
Leanne Allison and Jeremy Mendes, BEAR 71 (2012)
Followed by a Q&A with Jim Middleton – Scarborough Museums and Galleries Collections Manager – who discussed the museums’ natural history collection with artist/designer Lucy Carruthers.
This Gallery Screening was a response to an exhibition at Scarborough Art Gallery, Printmakers Council 1992-2019, which featured work by leading UK printmakers and a series of animated films using printmaking as the main technique in their films.
The programme included a variety of animated films, from early female experimental film pioneer Mary Ellen Bute to the haunting film MATE (2019) by Chaerin Im. We were joined at the screening by two members of women’s collective Leeds Animation Workshop – known for their animated films on social and political issues – who participated in the Q&A.