Radical Reel: 40 Years of Moving Image

28 Sep 2021-2 Jan 2022

Overview

Radical Reel is an exhibition and season of screenings celebrating 40 years of artist’s film and video works from Leeds collection. Drawing connections between cinema, performance, television and the internet, Radical Reel traces the revolutionary development of the art form through rapid technological and social change.

The displays on the ground floor feature a group of celebrated artists whose work explores social themes and urban issues. Kickstarting a changing roster of films in the White Gallery, Rosalind Nashashibi’s Hreash House 2004 is an intimate portrayal of an extended family in Nazareth, Israel. Shot over 24-hours during a period of political and social turmoil, the camera’s focus on the mundane aspects of the family’s everyday life invites us into their world of enclosure and confinement, prompting us to consider the ways we interact with our environment as well as with each other.

On show in the Lyons Gallery are the earliest video works to enter the collection, displayed alongside more recent acquisitions. These cover topics ranging from aging, death, loss and the women’s movement.

Radical Reel culminates with the gallery’s most recent acquisition, Harold Offeh’s Reading the Realness (2020 – ongoing). Here, the artist has worked closely with members of the Youth Collective and its forum for older communities Meet and Make to create a performance based on scripts from popular television and radio chat shows. Together, these works explore how we can strengthen bonds and connections between people, in times where communities have found themselves increasingly fractured and isolated.

The White Gallery programme:

28 September – 17 October

Rosalind Nashashibi, Hreash House, 2004.

19 October – 14 November

Mark Wallinger, Threshold to the Kingdom, 2000.

16 November – 12 December

Bruce McLean, I Want my Crown, 2013.

14 Dec – 2 January

Mariele Neudecker, Winterreise, 2003.

Radical Reel has a life beyond the gallery including a series of city-wide screenings, interventions and community led initiatives exploring these works through the lens of today. We’ll be posting details of forthcoming screenings and supporting events soon.