Eileen 2008, DVD Installation Premiering at Gimpel Fils, London 23rd May - 28th June 2008 "On the face of it, Belfast artist Susan MacWilliam breathes life into the obscure history of research into paranormal perception. Straddling the roles of scientific investigator, documentarian and artist, she delivers hauntingly beautiful video-based installations of real case studies. On another level, MacWilliam unravels some of our most basic assumptions about art, authenticity and perception." - Don Carroll , Jack the Pelican, New York Hailed one of the world's greatest mediums, Eileen Garrett (1893-1970) founded The Parapsychology Foundation in 1951. Eileen features projected images of the Parapsychology Foundation Library in New York, a strobing edit of archival footage of Garrett and a synchronised 3 screen video work featuring academics and family members talking about Garrett. The charismatic and multi-facetted Garrett is conjured through image and anecdote, and video vignettes recall the 'dead ducks', 'the horse riding incident' and 'The Ash Manor Case'. In particular, Garrett is brought to life through the descriptions and gestures of her daughter, Eileen Coly. Although ostensibly about Garrett, Eileen can be understood as being as much about her daughter, now in her 90s. |
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In 1999 MacWilliam was shortlisted for the IMMA/Glen Dimplex Artists Award at the Irish Museum of Modern Art and in 2003 was awarded the Perspective Award at Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast. MacWilliam has been artist in residence at PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York; Carribean Centre for Contemporary Arts, Trinidad; and Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin. In summer 2008 she will travel to Winnipeg for a residency at Platform Centre for Digital and Photographic Arts and will research the Thomas Glendenning Hamilton Spirit Photograph Archive at the University of Manitoba. Her work was most recently exhibited in the group exhibition Seeing is Believing, The Photographers' Gallery, London, 2007 and in a solo show at Jack The Pelican Presents, New York, 2008; A review of her solo show will be published in ArtForum, summer 2008. In 2008 MacWilliam's video works (1998-2007) will be housed in the British Library's 'Sound Archive', London. MacWilliam lives in Belfast. |
Gimpel Fils Monday - Friday 10.00 am - 5.30 pm |