locative memories:
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Locative Memories:. Site-Specific Video Installations in Northern Irish Prisons. Old Borders, New Technologies: Discourses in Contemporary Visual Culture in Northern Ireland. Technological and aesthetic developments NI moving image production Key artists, film-makers, performers - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
LOCATIVE MEMORIES:Site-Specific Video Installations in
Northern Irish Prisons
Old Borders, New Technologies: Discourses in Contemporary Visual Culture in Northern Ireland
Technological and aesthetic developments NI moving image production Key artists, film-makers, performers Video installation, performance art,
independent film-making ‘Troubles’/‘post-conflict’ themes Contextualised by:
New media; expanded cinema; performance art; post-colonialism; social control, etc.
Challenging traditional notions of National Cinema and artistic canons
Catherine Elwes
‘Video is the default medium of the twenty-first century. It is everywhere, trapped on monitors and computer screens and projected, cinema-style, onto pristine gallery walls, across public spaces and onto the hallowed surfaces of national museums.’ (Video Art, A Guided Tour, p. 1)
‘Discredited as the medium of truth, video in the 1990s was more often discussed for what it couldn’t do than for what it actually achieved.’ (Video Art, A Guided Tour, p. 163)
Paper outline
Inside Stories: Memories from the Maze and Long Kesh Prison, dir. Cahal McLaughlin (2004)
Inside Stories exhibition in Crumlin Road Gaol, March 2009
Their Stories, dir. Patsy Mullan (2009) Exhibited in Context Gallery, Derry,
September 2009 Stories told naturally Personal accounts Simultaneous multiple narratives
HMP Maze
British government refused ‘political’/’special category status to paramilitary prisoners
H-Blocks built Protests over
treatment Closed in 2000
Inside Stories
Interviews with Billy Hutchinson, Gerry Kelly, and Desi Waterworth
Ownership of stories/collaboration vital
Prisons Memory Archive
Different stories told separately
Billy Hutchinson
Ex-loyalist prisoner for murder
Advocated loyalist ceasefire
Key member of PUP Had not returned to
the site before Site-reactive
memory Little media
experience
Billy Hutchinson
Held in Long Kesh nissen compound
Former RAF base Vacated in late
1980s Had remained
untouched but now razed
Plenty of material to work with
Gerry Kelly
Ex-republican prisoner for weapons trafficking and bombs
Transferred to Maze from Brixton
Key figure in peace process and Sinn Fein
Media aware Had returned since
release
Gerry Kelly
1 block preserved in case peace talks broke down
Education/debates Discussions led to
peace process Solidarity among
inmates
Desi Waterworth
Prison officer Serving in HMP
Maghaberry in 2004
Security routines and regulations
‘back against the wall’ body language
Seldom heard account
Isn’t granted same freedom
Joanna McMinn and Fiona Barber
Added part with Open University tutors at the Maze in the 1970s/80s
Filmed in car journey to Maze
Compare experiences
Audiovisual contrasts to other parts
Crumlin Road Gaol
Site-specific exhibition
Belfast Prison closed 1996
Museum, gallery, performance space, tourist attraction
Monitors within cells
Teachers’ segment in larger conjoined cell
Crumlin Road Gaol
Spectator empathy for confinement and cold
Sound bleed Stressed
emptiness Drew viewers
towards various voices
Separation reflected real life and interview process
Patsy Mullan’s exhibition
Lecturer in media Interested in
Armagh Women’s Prison
Video accompanied by Visual Residues – stills of Armagh Prison
Now closed Same protests as
Maze in 1970s/80s
Their Stories
Double-channel video
Back-to-back monitors
Headsets/intimacy Photographic –
minimal movement Slide show and
voice Double imagery
(foreground and background)
Their Stories
Rose McCartney Patricia Moore Candid accounts of
treatment Piece simplistic in
form/presentation Harrowing stories Verbal contrasts
visual
