Spike Island

In an underground orchard in Bethlehem, decades after an otherworldly ecodisaster, two scientists discuss exile, loss and nostalgia.

The Blackboy Clock, which incorporates a wooden blackamoor figure in its design, was originally assembled by a Gloucestershire watchmaker in 1774, during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. Relocated to a specially constructed niche on the front of a former schoolhouse in 1844, the clock has undergone restorations in 1977 and 2004 and has remained a constant presence throughout Dan Guthrie’s life in Stroud. Rotting Figure is one of two newly commissioned videos that put forward the ‘radical un-conservation’ of the clock—a new theoretical concept proposed by Guthrie to describe the acquisition of an object with the express intent to destroy it. Central to this new body of work are questions about what society chooses to memorialise and how we do so.

The Blackboy Clock, which incorporates a wooden blackamoor figure in its design, was originally assembled by a Gloucestershire watchmaker in 1774, during the height of the transatlantic slave trade. Relocated to a specially constructed niche on the front of a former schoolhouse in 1844, the clock has undergone restorations in 1977 and 2004 and has remained a constant presence throughout Dan Guthrie’s life in Stroud. Empty Alcove is one of two newly commissioned videos that put forward the ‘radical un-conservation’ of the clock—a new theoretical concept proposed by Guthrie to describe the acquisition of an object with the express intent to destroy it. Central to this new body of work are questions about what society chooses to memorialise and how we do so.

The film draws on the concept of audio feedback as a metaphor for the circulation of rhythm, memory, and cultural codes within the African diaspora. Audio feedback – the loop where sound cycles between output and input, amplifying itself—becomes a way to understand how cultures, stories, and histories reverberate across continents and generations. The drum, both as a physical instrument and as a symbol of rhythmic connection, beats the film’s time. Tracing its evolution from traditional West African drumming traditions to electronic drum machines, Feedback highlights how the drum functions as a structural and spiritual backbone of communal gathering.

The Drift traces the shifting economies of objects in contemporary Lebanon. The film moves between three main characters: the gatekeeper of the Roman temples of Niha in the Beqaa Valley; a young mechanic from Britel, a village known for trading automobile parts; and an archaeological conservator working at the American University of Beirut.

A poetic meditation on the history of runaway enslaved persons in 18th century Britain, exploring notions of fugitivity and the challenges of reconstructing lesser-known histories when archives provide limited information.

As anti-Muslim attacks are on the rise in Brexit Britain, Imran Perretta lends his voice to disaffected Muslim youth who the United Kingdom continues to treat as a threat. In this two-screen group testimonial on their troubled upbringing, the young men reclaim their politicised bodies as an instrument to make their own percussive music.