Artists Selected for Jerwood/Film and Video Umbrella Awards: What Will They See of Me?

The four moving-image artists have now been selected for the second edition of the Jerwood/Film and Video Umbrella Awards. The chosen artists are Lucy Clout, Kate Cooper, Anne Haaning and Marianna Simnett. In response to the curatorial brief and its title What Will They See of Me?, their four proposals explore the themes of identity, visibility and posterity in ways that both embrace and interrogate new technology and express a strong and compelling performative impulse.

The four selected artists were chosen from a list of over 150 submissions by a panel of six experts in the field: artist Ed Atkins, who was previously selected for the first edition of the Jerwood/Film and Video Umbrella Awards; Steven Bode, Director of Film and Video Umbrella; Shonagh Manson, Director of Jerwood Charitable Foundation; Francis McKee, Director of CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; Sarah Williams, Jerwood Visual Arts Gallery Manager and Catherine Wood, Curator of Contemporary Art & Performance at Tate Modern.

Lucy Clout has chosen to investigate the background noise of modern communication, and those examples of so-called “minor speech” that are everywhere around us but do not always capture our attention. Graduating from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Sculpture in 2009, her previous projects have examined the experience of viewing performance.

Kate Cooper is concerned in how our everyday performance is produced online and how in turn this might relate to ideas of gender. Cooper is an artist and co-founder of London-based artist-run initiative Auto Italia, which she began in 2007, after graduating from Central Saint Martins.

Anne Haaning’s project considers the marks humanity inadvertently leaves in digital space and the records individuals choose to make to document personal journeys. Originally an MA graduate in Architecture, Anne Haaning will graduate from her MFA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths in 2014.

The final artist, Marianna Simnett, continually jumps between animality and domestication in her work. Simnett’s proposal revolves around the image of an udder as a symbol of innocence and abundance. Marianna Simnett graduated from the Slade School of Art with an MA in Fine Art Media in 2013. She has exhibited in group shows in the UK and internationally.

Going on to research and develop their project ideas with a £4,000 bursary and production support from Film and Video Umbrella, the four will present their pilot pieces in an exhibition at Jerwood Visual Arts in March 2014. Two of the final artists will then be selected to develop their ideas into finished works with a £20,000 commission each and further support from Film and Video Umbrella. The completed pieces will then be exhibited at Jerwood Visual Arts, London and CCA: Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow in 2015.

Credits
1. Faint, (2012) by Marianna Simnett, single channel video.