The Scotland + Venice partnership presented SaF05, a new single-channel video by 2018 Turner Prize-winning artist CHARLOTTE PRODGER for the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, presented by The Scotland + Venice partnership, and supported by Outset Scotland.
This commission – the artist’s most ambitious to date – was curated by Linsey Young with Cove Park and took place from 11 May – 24 November 2019 at the Arsenale Dock, an utilitarian workshop of a boatyard, repurposed for Prodger’s installation.
Much of Prodger’s work looks at subjectivity, self- determination and queerness. SaF05 is the last in a trilogy of videos that began with Stoneymollan Trail (2015) and was followed by BRIDGIT (2016). This autobiographical cycle traces the accumulation of affinities, desires and losses that form a self as it moves forward in time. SaF05 draws upon multiple sources – archival, scientific and diaristic – and combines footage from a number of geographical locations (the Scottish Highlands, the Great Basin Desert, the Okavango Delta and the Ionian Islands).
Prodger’s work also toured across Scotland’s west coast, highlands and islands from 27 June to 21 November, whilst being presented to audiences in Venice.
Dates of the full Scottish tour:
- Thursday 27 June: The Tower Digital Arts Centre, Helensburgh, Argyll & Bute
- Wednesday 3 July: Glasgow Film Theatre
- Thursday 25 July: Campbeltown Picture House, Argyll & Bute
- Thursday 22 August: Aros Community Cultural Centre, Skye
- Friday 27 September: An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis
- Thursday 24 October: Mareel – Shetland Arts Centre, Shetland
- Thursday 21 November: Belmont Filmhouse, Aberdeen
The UK premiere on Thursday 27 June at The Tower Digital Arts Centre coincided with the launch of a limited edition print by Prodger. Each screening included a short trailer documenting the project development made by Connolly Clark Film and was followed by a talk with the curators and participants involved in the Professional Development Programme.
CHARLOTTE PRODGER
Charlotte Prodger was born in Bournemouth, UK in 1974. She studied at Goldsmiths, London and The Glasgow School of Art. Prodger’s preoccupation with perspective, framing and the physicality of the camera as a sculptural device is expanded in SaF05. Film industry cameras, static camera traps, drones and small handheld devices such as Prodger’s smartphone are each used for their inherent material properties. The effects and affects of these technologies are reverberated in the voiceover’s references to optical devices, while vibrating frequencies – bagpipe drone, cicada mating call, battery alarm – form aural equivalences between animal and human, instrument and machine.
