The Moving Image Fund for Museums is an initiative under the curatorial direction of Steve McQueen (b. 1969, UK) to enrich regional collections in Great Britain with film and video work. The first scheme of its kind in the UK, it aims to ensure that the most significant works of contemporary film and video art can be bought for public collections.
The Moving Image Fund is generously supported by the Ampersand Foundation, Art Fund, Iain Canning and Emile Sherman, Thomas Dane Gallery, Gerry Fox, David and Rose Heyman, Pierre Lagrange, Rebecca Marks, the Outset Young Patrons Circle, the Rothschild Foundation and the Sfumato Foundation.
ACQUISITIONS
ISAAC JULIEN Ten Thousand Waves, 2010
Inspired by the cockle-pickers tragedy in Morecambe Bay in 2004 in which 20 Chinese cockle pickers drowned, the film weaves stories that explore China’s contemporary culture with ancient myths including the fable of the goddess Mazu, which comes from the Fujian Province from where the Morecambe Bay workers originate. Set across nine double-sided screens the installation choreographs visitor’s movement through the space.
The work has been jointly acquired by the Towner Art Gallery in Eastbourne and the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. The Whitworth Art Gallery plan to show the work in their 2016 Summer Exhibition as well as showing the work at a special screening in partnership with Manchester’s Centre for Contemporary Chinese Art.
ISAAC JULIEN (b. 1960, UK) was awarded the Semaine de la Critique Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1991 and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2001. He has exhibited internationally including at the Prompidou Centre, Paris (2005) Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014) and Museum Brandhorst, Munich (2011). His work is represented in private and public collections around the world including the Guggenheim Museum, New York, the Tate Modern, London and the Louis Vuitton Art Foundation, Paris.
OMER FAST, 5,000 Feet is Best, 2011
In 5,000 Feet is Best, a former drone pilot in a Las Vegas motel room tells how he controlled unmanned planes to fire at civilians and militia in Afghanistan and Pakistan from a Las Vegas Desert base. The project’s title refers to the ‘optimum’ firing position of the drone plane. Moving between fact and fiction, documentary and action film style, the film juxtaposes the drone pilot’s account with dramatizations of alternative scenarios, played out with an unforgettable ending. The work questions modern conflict and how far we have moved away from the mud of the battlefield. The work received critical acclaim for the subtle presentation of the complexity of this controversial issue, neither glorifying nor vilifying the pilot.
Towner Art Gallery acquired the work jointly with the Imperial War Museum and plan to present the work in a group exhibition in 2017.
OMER FAST (b. 1972, Israel) has had his work featured in the 54th Venice Biennale (2001) and the Whitney Biennial, New York (2008). In addition Fast has had exhibitions at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2014), the South London Gallery, UK (2009) and the Goethe-Institut Hong Kong (2010).
