Near Now Fellow Adham Faramawy presents a double bill screening of Paprika and Belladonna of Sadness as part of POROUS BODIES, a series of events devised by the artist to complement his Fellowship research.
Schedule
7:00PM |
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7:30PM |
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8:15PM |
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Break |
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10:00PM |
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11:30PM |
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Introduction
Jamie Sutcliffe, writer, curator and co-director of Strange Attractor Press, will introduce the screenings, discussing animation and bodily-metamorphosis — the stretching, blurring and mutation of bodies into new formulations of the 'human'.
Paprika (2006)
Prepare to enter the realm of fantasy and imagination — where reality and dreams collide in a kaleidoscopic mindscape of sheer visual genius. The magical tale centres on a revolutionary machine that allows scientists to enter and record a subject’s dream. After being stolen, a fearless detective and brilliant therapist join forces to recover the device — before it falls into the hands of a “dream terrorist” in this gripping anime thriller from acclaimed director Satoshi Kon.
Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
Content warning: Belladonna of Sadness features images of extreme violence and sexual assault.
A 1973 Japanese animated musical inspired by the 19th century French historian Jules Michelet’s account of witchery in the Middle Ages.
One of the great lost masterpieces of Japanese animation, Belladonna of Sadness is a mad, swirling, psychedelic light-show of medieval tarot-card imagery with horned demons, haunted forests and La Belle Dame Sans Merci.
Belladonna of Sadness, directed by Eiichi Yamamoto, unfolds as a series of spectacular still watercolour paintings that bleed and twist together. A young woman, Jeanne, is raped by the local lord on her wedding night. To take revenge, she makes a pact with the Devil himself, who appears as a sprite and transforms her into a black-robed vision of madness and desire.
Rated: Suitable for ages 18+
Porous Bodies
A series of events devised by Adham Faramawy to complement his Near Now Fellowship research.
Adham has devised a selection of films that undermine the idea of the human body as a singular entity, exploding the idea of the body as a discreet biological category. Sometimes literally.
These screenings and accompanying events complement Adham's current research and artistic practice. They present a variety of often problematic approaches to the body, exploring perspectives that reframe the body as a plastic process, porous and adaptable, denaturalised, magic, science-fictive and miraculous.
Events in the series will continue to take place throughout 2019–2020.
About the artists
Jamie Sutcliffe
Jamie Sutcliffe is a writer, curator and co-director of Strange Attractor Press (distributed by The MIT Press). His essays, reviews, and interviews have been published by Art Monthly, Frieze, Rhizome, The White Review, EROS Journal, Bricks From The Kiln, The Quietus, and IsThisIt, while catalogue essays have been commissioned by the New Museum, New York, the Austrian Cultural Forum, London, and Primary, Nottingham.
He has presented talks, chaired symposia and performed texts at The V&A, Wysing Arts Centre, Jerwood Space, Somerset House, IMT Gallery, Site Gallery, The Tetley, Bosse & Baum, Tyneside Cinema and Humber Street Gallery and is a regular contributor to the Art Monthly Talk Show on Resonance FM.
He co-edited A-or-ist, a journal of art writing, and continues to edit BERSERKER, a journal of genre studies, outlandish comics, and science fiction published by Breakdown Press. Recent curatorial projects include The Psychopathic Now! at Flat Time House, London, The Shadow Moses Incident at Primary, Nottingham, and a forthcoming two-venue exhibition exploring the clandestine politics of Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid series at Southwark Park Galleries and Dilston Grove in 2020.
Chaos Magic
Chaos Magic is a new artist project space based at Backlit, Nottingham. It is currently run by six recent art graduates from Nottingham Trent University: Katie Bishop, Christina Cushing, Theo Gilmour-Rees, Ryan Heath, Hannah Parikh, Joseph Winsborrow and artist/mentor Joey Holder.
Adham Faramawy
Artist Adham Faramawy makes work existing at the intersection of the body with technology. He uses a wide variety of media, from computer programs and apps, to perfume and print. Much of his work revolves around performance for camera and sculptural assemblage. Inspired by the language of advertising, Faramawy co-opts the techniques and special effects used to evoke desire for people, things and experiences. He combines the seductive devices of slipperiness, morphing and repetition with an interest in the transgressive aesthetics of ‘body horror’ found in cult cinema, animation and literature.
Through the Near Now Fellowship, Adham is focusing on ideas of immersive viewing and how performing bodies can engage with and be augmented by animated digital objects.
