Heather Phillipson: Dream Land

16 Jun-1 Jul 2023

PV 16 Jun 2023, 6-8pm

Overview

We're excited to be exhibiting Dream Land, a new moving image work and live event for Art Night by Turner Prize nominated artist Heather Phillipson.

Dream Land is a new commission by Heather Phillipson which incorporates archival BBC wildlife footage, recast as hallucination. Opening with its bug protagonist sucked through a vacuum cleaner nozzle, the film lands us in an alternative world which resembles our own but as if broadcast from another dimension. Remixing and revoicing remarkable scenes from innovative 1980s nature documentaries Supersense and Life Sense, Dream Land presents earthly life as a dream, accessed via the bizarre and precious lives by which we’re surrounded. Its leading characters shape shift between species and environments, reprogrammed to form an alternative narrative. Creatures appear as interlocutors, harbingers and guides. In parallel, it is scored with a soundscape, composed by the artist, that samples the crackles of wildlife into a strange new music. 

The film is punctuated by Mourning Ritual, a one-off audio event composed by Phillipson to communicate with the spirits of departed animals. The event will take place at Cooper Gallery on the evening of Art Night. The live event is co-commissioned with Art Night and Cooper Gallery and supported by the DJCAD Centenary Trust.

Co-commissioned by Art Night and the Art Fund as part of their Wild Escape programme, Dream Land will be exhibited at Cooper Gallery supported by Art Fund. Art Night will then gift the film to The McManus: Dundee’s Art Gallery & Museum’s permanent collection. 

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