The fifth and final episode of ‘Ask the Artist’ 2014 will be held in Luan Gallery on Saturday December 6. A UK video artist, Mel Brimfield, will be interviewed by Claire O’Brien, producer and presenter of Midlands 103’s arts programme Encore.
Brimfield’s exhibition in Luan Gallery is part of Quantum Foam, a touring exhibition presented by Kinsale Arts Festival, Wexford Arts Centre, Luan Gallery, Galway Arts Centre, and The Lab. It is a retrospective of the artist’s work, with each gallery presenting a different series of existing works. Currently screened in Athlone is a video piece An Audience with Willy Little which is performed by Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2014 winner Dickie Beau. Mixing film and performance to revisit the rich tradition of British music hall and variety theatre, Dickie Beau’s uncanny mime technique transports us right back in time to enjoy a rip-roaring variety bill.
Marie McPartlin, curator of the exhibition and director of Kinsale Arts Festival explained. “Her (Brimfield’s ) performance-based film piece An Audience with Willy Little is an ambitious work of self-reflexive drama, occupying territory poised somewhere between a séance and a rip-roaring variety bill, from which the formal structure of the piece takes its cue.
“A host of vanished music hall acts captured in archival audio recordings are ‘re-membered’ by Dickie Beau’s uncanny lip-synch technique, ranging from bizarre speciality acts, through ventriloquists and animal impersonators to comedians. The metaphorical allure of allying Beau’s medium-like ability to conjure the lost with the melancholy demise of over a hundred years of theatre tradition is clear.”
To generate interest in this discussion Luan Gallery invites the public to send questions for the artists prior to the talk through twitter @AthArtHeritage.
The talk is open to the public, free of charge, with tea and coffee served. ‘Ask the Artist Episode 5’ takes place on Saturday December 6 from 5pm. No booking is required but places are limited.
