Writing

Our projects are invariably accompanied by specially-commissioned texts, a selection of which are published here.

A Rustle in the Trees

Read a new text by Steven Bode reflecting on A Forest Tale by Ruth Maclennan two years on—now contextualised in the wake of Russia’s developing authoritarian regime and the war in Ukraine.

Interludes: 20 Years Later

Mimi Howard

Writer and academic Mimi Howard considers Anne Bjerge Hansen’s Interludes against the ceaseless flow of video images in the present and the slower televisual rhythms of the past.

The Top Man in Paris

Graham Ellard & Stephen Johnstone

Published in the booklet accompanying the 1997 Passagen CD-ROM, the artists Ellard and Johnstone wend the creative and literary pathways within their work.

In Unison

Steven Bode

Steven Bode tunes into the lingering resonances of Marcus Coates’ work, and how its ecological message reverberates in the present.

Clearing the Air

Steven Bode

Steven Bode revisits Shona Illingworth’s Balnakiel in the light of her recent major work, Topologies of Air.

Portrait of the Artist as a Dust Wrangler

Chris Darke

To accompany the remastered release of Adam Chodzko's Plan for a Spell, we shake off the dust from Chris Darke’s essay from the 2002 catalogue for the work, Plans and Spells.

View scans of the original publication below.  You can purchase a copy of Plans and Spells here.

Natural Error

Jacob Sam-La Rose

Poet Jacob Sam-La Rose goes back to his Eighties childhood, lit up by its ever-changing parade of new computer-games but clouded by its anxious hints of environmental catastrophe, to crack the code of Rodell Warner’s Natural Error.

Home Bitter Unhome

Rob Young

Author Rob Young, chronicler of British TV esoterica in his compendium ‘The Magic Box’, lifts the lid on the myriad ‘wyrd’ influences lurking in Craig David Parr’s Wings of Love.

Tracks in the Forest

Steven Bode

Steven Bode traces the journey Ori Gersht undertook to research and make The Forest in this catalogue essay from 2005.

Beyond the Trees

Mariam Zulfiqar and Dr David Edwards

In this essay on Ruth Maclennan’s Treeline, Mariam Zulfiqar and Dr David Edwards consider the wider botanical, cultural and geopolitical resonances that are opened up by the work.

No End In Sight

Steven Bode

As the latest chapter of Afghanistan’s repeating cycle of history seems set to start, Steven Bode looks back at Marine Hugonnier’s Ariana and its resonance for the present moment.

The Young Dog at the Zoo

Stewart Lee

Stand-up comedian, writer and director Stewart Lee asks whether comedy can ever be art in his essay on Patrick Goddard's film Animal Antics. 

So Far, and Yet So Near

Steven Bode

Graham Gussin's Remote Viewer was made twenty years ago this year. From a distance of two decades, Steven Bode reflects on how much it resonates with the present.

Marooned

Steven Bode

With Paul Rooney's Dust and Bellevue available on FVU Watch, Steven Bode reflects on their themes of limbo and confinement one year into the global pandemic.

Notes on ‘The Bird Game’

Steven Bode

To accompany Marianna Simnett's The Bird Game and Confessions of a Crow, Steven Bode adds some supplementary notes.

The Fluidity of Care

Rebekah Taussig

Writer Rebekah Taussig explores how caregiving is both a personal and communal experience in this powerful response to Kyla Harris and Lou Macnamara's It's Personal.

Alberta Whittle: RESET

Harvey Dimond

Harvey Dimond explores the historical resonances of this slavery-referencing artwork made during a suffocating pandemic

“How do i no ur not false?”

Jo Thompson

Writer Jo Thompson explores Rachel Maclean's Feed Me within the context of surveillance capitalism, highlighting traces of the fairytale narrative in our online behaviours.

The Ghosts of Christmas Past

Steven Bode

As Rachel Maclean's Feed Me shows on FVU Watch, Steven Bode reflects on what we can learn from the film at Christmas amidst a pandemic.

States of Being

Emmie McLuskey

Emmie McLuskey unpacks our modern dependence technology, substances and ritual, as well as what it means to belong, in Cal Mac's Agony to Ecstasy.

Reman Sadani

Adnan Madani

Artist and writer Adnan Madani explores the allegorical within Reman Sadani's Walkout 1.

Wuhan Punk

Steven Bode

Responding to Chris Zhongtian Yuan's Wuhan Punk, Steven Bode reflects on how the city of Wuhan was previously famous for being the hotbed of China's punk rock scene.

Unreal

Iris Long

Iris Long reflects on the machinations at play in Chris Zhongtian Yuan's Wuhan Punk, exploring the implications of restoring visual memory via the medium of film.

Great-ish: The Gaslighting of a Nation

Rianna Walcott

Rianna Walcott responds to Exodus Crooks' Great-ish: The Gaslighting of a Nation, exploring the collective gaslighting of the Black community in Britain.
 

The Near Room

Katrina Black

Katrina Black explores themes of grief in Sophie Cundale's The Near Room.

FVU Frames: Sophie Cundale

Ellen O'Donohue Oddy

We sat down with Sophie Cundale to discuss the making of The Near Room and how she came upon the film's key concepts: Muhammad Ali's Near Room and Cotard Delusion.

Celebration (Cyprus Street)

Steven Bode

FVU Director Steven Bode reflects on the making of Celebration (Cyprus Street) as well as its relevance for today.

MASS

David Kwaw Mensah

David Kwaw Mensah considers how Nadeem Din-Gabisi's MASS can be categorised in the genre of Transcendental Cinema. 

MASS: Artist’s Statement

Nadeem Din-Gabisi

Nadeem Din-Gabisi, writer and director of MASS, articulates the thinking and process behind his film.

Critical Mass

Steven Bode

FVU's Director Steven Bode reflects on our first film to premiere on FVU Watch: Nadeem Din-Gabisi's MASS.

Patrick Staff: On Venus

Laura Jacobs

Laura Jacobs on hostile environments, both social and natural, in Patrick Staff’s ‘On Venus’ exhibition. Winner of the Michael O'Pray Prize 2019.

Image Abrasion

Cassandre Greenberg

Cassandre Greenberg considers Derek Jarman’s Blue as a celluloid artefact in an age of portable digital media. Winner of the Michael O'Pray Prize 2019.

Something New

Ellen Mara De Wachter

Writer Ellen Mara De Wachter looks at the potential for newness within open source materials in the work of Open Music Archive.

The Sentiment is in the Title

Paul Morley

Writer and broadcaster Paul Morley discusses the history of the UK charts, sampling and music distribution in the work of Open Music Archive.

Implicated

Natasha Hoare

Goldsmiths CCA curator Natasha Hoare explores the work of Richard Whitby and asks who is implicated in the UK immigration act.

Tipping Points

Steven Bode

FVU's Steven Bode discusses the cultural and historical contexts behind Elizabeth Price's FELT TIP.

Unintended Consequences

George Vasey

George Vasey looks at the concept of the 'unintended concequence' in the work of Maeve Brennan and Imran Perretta.

Don’t Look at the Finger

Steven Bode

Director of FVU Steven Bode explores the concept of the 'first impression' in the work of Hetain Patel.

We Put The World Before You

Erika Balsom

Film theorist Erika Balsom takes a close-up of Jane and Louise Wilson's 2016 work We Put the World Before You.

A Half-Open Door

Laurence Scott

Writer Laurence Scott considers temporality in the 21st century, looking at the work of Alice May Williams and Karen Kramer.

Too Big To Miss

Steven Bode

Steven Bode picks through the postmatch data of the Rugby World Cup 2015 alongside Ravi Deprees' The Gain Line.

Thoughts about Things

Patrick Langley

Read Patrick Langley's response to Ben Rivers' Things, commissioned for FVU's Stay Where You Are project.

Part 3: Seven Degrees of Homing

Jay Griffiths

Jay Griffiths embraces the confines that her work often leaves behind in its pursuit of the wider, wilder world outside.

Part 4: Sacred Hospitality

Jay Griffiths

Jay Griffiths embraces the confines that her work often leaves behind in its pursuit of the wider, wilder world outside.

Local Time

Patrick Langley

Patrick Langley considers the concept of travel and its representation in Layla Curtis' Antipodes

Dust

Paul Rooney

The monologue from Paul Rooney's Dust, as featured in his anthology 'Dust and Other Stories'.

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