Ian Helliwell, Practical Electronica 2011
Image: still from 'Practical Electronica', 2011, Ian Helliwell, courtesy the artist

CAST Film Club screens four artists’ films that share an interest in experimental filmmaking techniques. The works explore various themes including sound visualisation, hand painting, abstraction, animation, video feedback, found footage and collage. Films by Ian Helliwell, Jeff Keen, Wangechi Mutu and Jacco Olivier.

Ian Helliwell’s experimental documentary Practical Electronica focuses on the work of FC Judd (1914-1992), an important and previously untold link in the history of early British electronic music. Helliwell’s work on film uses hand painting, bleaching, scratching and stop motion animation and uses similarly ‘hands-on’ working methods in his electronic music and club performances.

Jeff Keen (1923–2012) was a pioneer of experimental film, a maker of rapid-fire animations, multiple screen projections and raucous performances. Artwar, made in 1993, is a refined and punchy series of films where the sound of explosions and gunfire smack against images of Keen’s strident performances at home and out painting at the local tip. Jacco Olivier creates short animations drawn from his paintings. Enigmatic and experiential, his films move in and out of abstraction as they reveal the traces and decision-making of the painting process. CAST Film Club screens three works each less than four minutes in duration: Pay de Flore, Stumble and Wood. Nairobi-born American artist Wangechi Mutu makes film using animated collage. Her work The End of Eating Everything characterises the earth as avatar, the persona of a black woman experiencing loss and abjection.

CAST Café will serve food from 6.30pm, something hot and something sweet for £6.

The public programme at CAST is supported by Arts Council England, as part of the Groundwork programme 2016-18, which has been awarded Ambition for Excellence funding. Ambition for Excellence is a new programme aimed at stimulating and supporting ambition, talent and excellence across the arts sector in England. The fund aims to have significant impact on the growth of an ambitious international-facing arts infrastructure, especially outside London.

CAST Film Club programme is curated by Kelly Taylor.

Friday 9 December 2016 7.30pm Free admission
All welcome