The Films of Lis Rhodes at Arnolfini
Headfirst Editor's Pick

"Bristol Experimental and Expanded Film curate a selection of Lis Rhodes’ radical boundary-smashing artist films, weaving forgotten histories and narratives of dissent through darkroom experiments and lyrical examinations of language itself. "

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A event held at Arnolfini on Thursday 18th July. The event starts at 19:00.


BEEF presents: Conspirators of Perception III; Lis Rhodes' films.

Join Bristol Experimental and Expanded Film for the screening of Lis Rhodes' films, spanning four decades of her practice and encapsulates her concerns with patriarchy, power, surveillance, military control and the language of cinema and media through which this is represented.

The films will be introduced by Ben Cook, director of LUX.
www.lux.org.uk

FILMS

Light Reading 1976

Using animation rostrum techniques, Light Reading restlessly scans and scrutinises torn fragments of overlaid drawings, photographs and letters, building a restricted view on a domestic scene. Present throughout, Rhodes’ voice is a counter rhythm to the visual clues as she narrates complexities of representing female subjectivity.


Cold Draft 1988

Continuing with the aesthetic of searching through layers of artworks and documents, Cold Draft also points a lens outwards to capture uninhabited, blighted industrial landscapes. The bleak atmosphere is compounded by the foreboding in Rhodes voice as she narrates existence under a neo liberal apparatus of oppression of Orwellian proportions.


Ambiguous Journeys 2019

To a greater degree even than the earlier works, this film seems to investigate the power of abstract animated forms to connote violence. A lexicon of bold geometric overlapping black and white shapes suggests an oppressive apparatus of restricted movement and a sense of entrapment, made doubly stark by Rhodes spoken dirge detailing the dire economic conditions and dehumanising of, what is now termed,the global majority. Yet here also is beauty and a glimpse of hope as the mesh briefly ruptures, the voice lifts, the poetry soars.

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This event was made possible by WEVAA, supported by Arts Council England.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions

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