[spectre] The Journey/Moscow to Beijing: Exhibition by Elly Clarke & Joram ten Brink opens on 25th October

[Geert Lovink]

> From: Elly Clarke <ellyclarke at GMAIL.COM>
>
> Press Release October 2007
>
> JORAM TEN BRINK
> ELLY CLARKE
>
> THE JOURNEY/MOSCOW TO BEIJING
>
> 26 October 2007 - 6 January 2008
>
> Elly Clarke and Joram ten Brink's journey on the Trans-Siberian train
> forms the basis of the exhibition 'The Journey/Moscow to Beijing' at
> London Gallery West. Travelling together as part of the 'Capturing the
> Moving Mind'1 conference taking place on the train, the exhibition
> reveals two distinct yet related interpretations of the same event.
>
> Joram ten Brink's 16mm film The Journey is a poetic essay that weaves
> together images taken on and off the train with stills of modern and
> ancient Russia and China. As the film unfolds, these images are
> blended with a soundtrack layering music, dialogue, atmospheric
> effects and station announcements to recreate the disembodied
> experience of travel. Drawing equally from the traditions of
> documentary, personal cinema and diary films, The Journey constantly
> shifts its parameters, forcing the viewer to reassess the origin and
> meaning of the exotic content of the film. In the repeated viewing
> context of looped gallery projection the numerous cinematic narratives
> and shifting points of view in The Journey are particularly effective
> as they allow for multiple readings of the work.
>
> Using a range of formal strategies from documentary to art
> photography, Clarke's project Moscow to Beijing is investigative and
> interactive in nature: it consists of large-scale hand-printed colour
> photographs, snapshots, interviews with passengers, a 3-screen video
> installation, postcards and local ephemera. This diversity of
> materials and approaches mirrors the fragmented nature of her enquiry,
> which aims to transcend the barriers of language, nationality and
> geography. Clarke's project creates an intimate space in which the
> subjectivities of the passengers she encounters on the train can be
> gleaned. In her work the artist is a cipher, attempting to produce
> images from a position of trust in which the subjects are active, if
> sometimes resistant, participants.
>
> Ten Brink and Clarke offer here a series of interpretations of the
> Trans-Siberian train journey – not a cohesive 'Great Train Journey' of
> the traditional television documentary, but a truly contemporary take
> on the nature of travel in a globalised and media-saturated world,
> where images and experiences can no longer be just what they seem.
>
> 1 Capturing the Moving Mind: Management and Movement in the Era of
> Permanently Temporary War held on the Trans-Siberian train, 11–20
> September 2005.
>
> Joram ten Brink is a Reader in Film at the School of Media, Arts and
> Design at the University of Westminster, where he also heads doctoral
> studies in art and design and directs the AHRC-funded Arts on Film
> archive. He works as a writer/director of documentary and experimental
> films in the UK and Holland, and his work has been screened at the
> Berlin and Rotterdam film festivals, and at MOMA in New York. His
> edited volume Building Bridges – the Cinema of Jean Rouch is published
> this year by Wallflower Press.
>
> Elly Clarke is an artist based in London. She has a Masters in Fine
> Art from Central Saint Martins and an Undergraduate degree in History
> of Art from Leeds. Her work has been shown in the UK and abroad,
> including Globe Hub in Newcastle, the Banff Centre in Canada, the
> Kiasma Museum in Helsinki, and in London. She is a current contributor
> to Control Magazine (Issue 17).
>
> A full-colour illustrated catalogue produced to coincide with the
> exhibition is available for purchase from London Gallery West, price
> £5.00
>
> Opening Times: Daily 09.00 – 17.00
>
> Private View: Thursday 25 October 17.00 – 20.00 at London Gallery West
>
> Gallery Talk – Sarah Carrington, formerly of curatorial partnership
> B&B, in conversation with Joram ten Brink and Elly Clarke:
> Wednesday 14 November 14.30 – 15:30 at London Gallery West
>
> Press images available on request.
>
> London Gallery West
> University of Westminster
> Watford Road
> Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3TP       	
> phone:+44 (0) 20 7911 5000 X4771 	
> email: a.leeman at wmin.ac.uk
>
> -- 
>
> Elly Clarke
> ellyclarke at gmail.com
> http://www.axisweb.org/artist/ellyclarke