Hamad Butt
Hamad Butt interviewed by Jamal Butt, 1994
Video
21:43 minutes
Private Collection

In March 1994, six months before his death, and critically ill, Hamad Butt consented to an interview by his brother Jamal at their parents’ home in Ilford. It is one of only two extant interviews with the artist.

Candid and uncompromising, Butt explains his most pressing motivations. He reflects on his achievements, from his early paintings to his sculptural installations, and describes his ambitions for the future. Domestic life intrudes upon the conversation throughout. Butt’s life and career were cruelly curtailed. Archival materials found in the exhibition indicate some of his plans that could not come to pass, and document the artist’s efforts to live with AIDS, treat his illnesses, and reckon with the prospect of dying too soon.

Hamad Butt
Triffids (1990)
Video
17:22 minutes, colour, silent
Private Collection

Hamad Butt made Triffids using rudimentary analogue video-editing software. It was conceived as part of Transmission. A triffid undergoes serial transformations as the hand-drawn figure and backgrounds are processed to cycle through a vivid colour palette. Meeting a violent end, the triffid is burned, shot, and killed. Butt drew the triffid to recall a scrotum and ejaculating penis. Its resemblance to juvenile graffiti brings a sexual connotation to the central theme of transmission, for example of body fluids or of death.

About the artist
Hamad Butt was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1962 and moved to live in east London with his family in 1964. He studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths from 1987 to 1990, and coincided with the Young British Artists (YBA) generation, many of whom studied alongside him there. His earliest works include countless paintings and prints, which were shown in exhibitions around London and the UK from 1983-87, including at Brixton Gallery, Walker Art Gallery, South London Gallery and London Lesbian and Gay Centre. From the late 1980s, Butt developed unprecedented large-scale sculptural installations using toxic or dangerous materials. His later works were exhibited at John Hansard Gallery (Southampton), Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain), Whitechapel Gallery, Milch, Institute of Contemporary Arts (all London), Manchester Art Gallery, and elsewhere. He continued to make works on paper throughout this time. Butt died of AIDS-related complications in London in 1994, aged 32. A book on his work, Familiars, was published posthumously in 1996. His work is in the permanent collections of Tate and IMMA.

Clare Langan
Alchemy, 2023
HDV with 5.1 surround sound;16 mins, 12 secs

In the aftermath of a pandemic and a time of numerous climate crises, Clare Langan’s epic work Alchemy (2023) symbolises an alchemical change that is necessary for the human species and the planet to survive. This sensory-rich film of provoking visuals and original music, takes the viewer through a journey of narrative transformation and revolution. The visuals are shot by Oscar nominated cinematographer Robbie Ryan and Clare Langan, with an original score by Gyða Valtýsdóttir and soundscape by Daniel Goddard.

The screening of Clare Langan’s Alchemy marks the official launch and celebration of Living Canvas at IMMA

About the artist
Clare Langan studied Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, Dublin and with a Fulbright Scholarship, completed a film workshop at NYU. In 2017, Langan was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from The National University of Ireland. In 2019, the artist was elected a member of Aosdána. She has represented Ireland in numerous international Biennales, including the 25th Bienal de Sao Paulo, 2002 Brazil; The Liverpool Biennial – International 2002, Tate Liverpool: Sounds and Visions, Art Film and Video from Europe, 2009, Museum of Modern Art, Tel Aviv; Singapore Biennial 2008; Dojima River Biennale 2009, Osaka Japan; Busan Biennale 2010, South Korea and B3 Biennial of the Moving Image, Frankfurt 2017. In 2003 Langan presented A Film Trilogy at MoMA in New York and at the RHA, Dublin.

In 2023, At the Gates of Silent Memory, curated by Eamonn Maxwell was exhibited at The Luan Gallery Athlone. It was accompanied by a publication with an in-conversation with Mary Mc Carthy, Director of the Crawford Gallery of Art. Two of her films were recently purchased by The Crawford Gallery of Art for the National Collection. Other exhibitions in 2023 include her solo exhibition The New Dawn Fades, at The Golden Thread Gallery Belfast; The Voyage Out – Clare Langan, Ulla Schildt & Tonje Bøe Birkeland at Gyldenpris Kunsthall, Norway; solo photography exhibition Elizium Sarah Walker Gallery and  8 Alba curated by Carolina Ciuti at Dimora delle Balze, Sicily.

In 2022, her work was shown in Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren, Germany, as well as numerous film festivals worldwide with the release of The Rewilding. In 2020, her film The Heart of a Tree premiered at Kino Der Kunst Munich, where it was acquired by the prestigious Fondazione In Between Art and Film Rome. They commissioned an essay by Teresa Castro, examining the film in a wider conversation, as part of their series STILL- Studies on Moving Images. Flight from the City was selected by the Crawford Gallery for Artists Film International (AFI), which toured worldwide through 2021 to Whitechapel Gallery, London, Hammer Museum, LA, NBK, Berlin, Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Ballroom Marfa, Texas, and The Museum of Modern Art, Moscow.

The Heart of a Tree 1 won The Progressive Vision Curtin O’ Donoghue Photography Prize at The RHA Annual Exhibition 2022. She was featured on RTE’s The Works Presents, interviewed by John Kelly, in 2022. Her films have won numerous awards including the Principle Prize at the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Germany 2007, and the Prix Videoformes Award 2013, France.

Langan’s films and photographs are in a number of international public and private collections including IMMA, The Crawford Gallery of Art, The Arts Council of Ireland, Fondazione In Between Art and Film, Rome, The Office of Public Works, the Tony Podesta Private Collection, Washington, and the Hugo and Carla Brown Collection, UK. She has undertaken numerous public art commissions including NUI Maynooth and Castletown House. Langan’s current project Earthbound 2025 is in production.

Contributor details
Director, Clare Langan
Cinematography, Robbie Ryan, Clare Langan
Choreographer, Maria Nilsson Waller
Performers, Maria Nilsson Waller, Luke Murphy, Eilise Sullivan,
Editing and Sound Design, Daniel Goddard
Original Score, Gyða Valtýsdóttir
Producer, Aideen O’Sullivan
Costume Designer, Tara Van Zyl
Music Mixed by Gyða Valtýsdóttir and Úlfur Hansson
Executive Producer, Edwina Forkin
Postproduction, Outer Limits
Artists’ Assistant, Chloe Austin
Funded by The Arts Council of Ireland
Copyright Clare Langan 2023