in conjunction with Antimatter 2006

We Make Our Own Television

Jennet Thomas | Paul Tarragó

September 22 to October 21, 2006

Because of the War and The Badger Series are projected moving image installations by, respectively, Jennet Thomas and Paul Tarragó. Together they form the basis of the two person exhibition We Make Our Own Television.

Because of the War is a single screen installation, continuing the developments in Thomas’ expanded narrative work seen in such recent pieces as her installation On the Shape of the Scab (2004: Courthouse Gallery, Anthology Film Archives, New York) and Double Dummy (2005: MOMA NY, ICA London, European Media Arts Festival Tour).

The Badger Series consists of four episodes of a simulated television programme—screened from DVD with a choice of episodes—and pushes Tarragó’s performative meta-narratives seen in Making Things Meaningful (2003: Kunstfilmbiennale Köln, ICA London, NYUFF) and Resident of Earth (2005: Rotterdam International Film Festival, ICA London, Commonwealth Film Festival) into new, inviting territories.

Like broadcasts from another time—and certainly another place—these works wrestle with sense-making through the forms we encountered of old—the authority voices that used to reassure us that everything was all right. Enunciating from the nice glowing box that sat in the corner, experts in ties explained order and glove puppets gave us moral guidance. These were our instructors in storytelling—or at least this is how we learnt to be told—and so now Thomas and Tarragó have picked up the dusty baton and are running their leg of the storytelling race. They are, however, ignoring the lane markings.

Jennet Thomas’ work grew out of the lively artist-run underground media scene in London of the 1990s. A founding member of the London-based collective Exploding Cinema, she’s been screening and touring film, video and installation work on the international experimental media festival circuit for the past nine years. She lives in South London and is a senior lecturer at The University of the Arts, London. Thomas recently had solo retrospectives of her work at Anthology Film Archives, New York, the Centre d’art Contemporain de Basse-Normandie, France, The Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago and toured work to the National Review of Live Art, Glasgow.

Paul Tarragó is an artist film and video maker based in South London. His work is a mix of underground experimentation and metafiction, tugging at the leash of film language but with narrative often held close at hand. Recent screenings include the Rotterdam International Film Festival, New York Underground Film Festival, National Review of Live Art, Cinematexas, Antimatter and Chicago Underground Film Festival. For the past 12 years Tarragó has been involved with Exploding Cinema, a film and video collective dedicated to originating alternative methods of exhibition. He has also curated a number of film programs for festivals and galleries in Europe and North America.