Bruce Conner
CROSSROADS
(1976, 35mm, black/white, sound, 37min)
Original Music by Patrick Gleeson and Terry Riley
Courtesy of the Conner Family Trust and Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles
© Conner Family Trust
Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive

About the film
CROSSROADS is a 1976 short film directed by renowned artist Bruce Conner. It features 37 minutes of extreme slow-motion replays of Operation Crossroads, a series of US nuclear bomb tests held on 25 July 25, 1946, less than a year after bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The underwater nuclear test took place at Bikini Atoll, a coral reef in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean.

The event was captured for research purposes by five hundred cameras stationed on unmanned planes, nearby boats, high altitude aircraft and from more distant points on the surrounding land. The location was partly selected because the network of islands formed an almost complete ellipse around the detonation site, allowing for a comprehensive documentation of the event from numerous angles. In many respects, CROSSROADS is sometimes described as a found film, as Conner once remarked “All I added were the splices”. The footage is accompanied by avant-garde Western classical music composed for electric organ by Terry Riley and sound produced on a Moog synthesizer by Patrick Gleeson.

About the artist
Bruce Conner (November 18, 1933 – July 7, 2008) was an American artist renowned for his work in film, assemblage, drawing, sculpture, painting, collage, photography, and conceptual pranks. Born in McPherson, Kansas and raised in Wichita, he attended Wichita State and got his BFA from Nebraska University in 1956, where he met and married Jean Sandstedt in 1957 before transplanting to San Francisco.

Initially known for his assemblage, Conner turned to film with A MOVIE in 1958, and other media soon after, with a freewheeling curiosity and resistance to pigeonholing that would last throughout his lifetime. He was an intensely focused artist whose tremendous discipline and skill was sometimes obscured by an irreverent playfulness, and a wildly diverse and frenetic output. Conner achieved much fame but showed little interest in its trappings, often refusing to be photographed, and occasionally not signing his work. For his “Who’s Who in American Art” entry, he sent a notice of his death, and he exhibited a series of his collages under the name of his friend, Dennis Hopper.

In San Francisco, Conner and friends including Joan Brown, Jay De Feo, Manuel Neri, and Wallace Berman were associated with Beat and post-Beat movements, but also formed their own collective, the Rat-Bastard Protective Association. After a two year sojourn in Mexico and other travels in the mid-1960’s, Conner returned to San Francisco and went into a period of exile from 1967 to 1971, when he quit exhibiting or teaching art. Upon ending this hiatus he returned to more public practice, making some of his most mature films, including CROSSROADS and TAKE THE 5:10 TO DREAMLAND, as well as continuing his work in diverse media.

Despite his efforts to ensure the contrary, Conner’s reputation has only expanded over the years. His contributions to cinema stand among his greatest achievements. Many attribute the birth of the music video to his 1961 film COSMIC RAY, as well as his more direct forays into the form in AMERICA IS WAITING (for David Byrne and Brian Eno) and MEA CULPA (with Devo). A MOVIE has achieved canonicity, and is today taught in introductory film history courses across the world. Key exhibitions include the seminal “2000 BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II” retrospective at the Walker Art Center, which was expanded upon in the highly lauded “BRUCE CONNER: IT’S ALL TRUE,” organised by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). The survey opened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in July 2016 and travelled to SFMOMA and the Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid. Conner is today recognized as one of the most important American artists of the 20th century.

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

About the film
Living Canvas at IMMA is delighted to premiere Irish artist Clare Langan’s epic new work Alchemy, 2023. In the aftermath of a pandemic and a time of numerous climate crises, Alchemy 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. Full film credits can be read at Clare Langan Alchemy 2020 Film Credits.

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 course at NYU. In 2017 she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Fine Arts from The National University of Ireland and in 2019 she became a member of Aosdána. Langan’s work has been exhibited extensively on an international level for over 20 years and has represented Ireland in numerous international Biennales, including the 25th Bienal de Sao Paulo, 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, Osaka Biennial Japan; Busan Biennale, South Korea.

Langan’s film The Heart of a Tree (2020) premiered at Kino Der Kunst, Munich, and it is now in the collection of Fondazione In Between Art Film Rome. Her film Flight from the City (2015) was screened as part of Artist Film International (AFI) in 2021 which included 21 partner organisations including Whitechapel Gallery, London, Hammer Museum LA, Para Site, Hong Kong and Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw. In 2022, her film River (2015) was screened as part of Living Canvas, Dublin City’s cultural initiative by IPUT and she won The Progressive Vision Curtin O’ Donoghue Photography Prize at The RHA Annual Exhibition in 2022. She was also the subject of an RTE television interview with John Kelly in The Works Presents. Most recent exhibitions include At The Gates of Silent Memory, curated by Eamonn Maxwell major solo show in Luan Gallery, Athlone which is accompanied d by a publication, and TERRA INFIRMA at Kunsthaus Kaufbeuren, Germany.

Derek Jarman,
The Angelic Conversation, 1985
Colour, sound; 78mins
©1985 Derek Jarman / BFI / Courtesy of the BFI National Archive

About the film
Intense, dreamlike, and poetic, The Angelic Conversation (1985) is one of the most artistic of Derek Jarman’s films. With his painter’s eye, Jarman conjured, in a beautiful palette of light, colour and texture, an evocative and radical visualisation of Shakespeare’s love poems. Of the 154 sonnets written by Shakespeare, most were written to an unnamed young man, commonly referred to as the Fair Youth. Here, Judi Dench’s emotive readings of 14 sonnets are coupled with ethereal sequences; figures on seashores, by streams and in colourful gardens. The disruption of these magical scenes with images of barren and threatening landscapes echoes perfectly the celebration and torment of love explored in the sonnets. Shot on Super-8 before being transferred to 35mm film, the unique technical approach results in a striking aesthetic, with Coil’s languorous soundtrack completing the intoxicating effect.

The Angelic Conversation is one of three films – namely Caravaggio (1986) and Wittgenstein (1993) – that represent highpoints in Jarman’s career and are perhaps the most enduring in their appeal and relevance to contemporary audiences. The films were made with the BFI Production Board, whose aim was to foster innovation in British filmmaking, thus providing a natural home for Jarman’s artistic sensibility.

About the artist
Derek Jarman (1942-1994) was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener, political activist and author. He was educated at the University of London and at the Slade School of Art. In 1967 Jarman exhibited in Young Contemporaries, Tate Gallery, London (prizewinner); Edinburgh Open 100, Lisson Gallery, London and Fifth Biennale des Jeunes Artistes, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris. Jarman’s first work in the cinema was as a set designer on Ken Russell’s The Devils (1971), selected set designs include Savage Messiah (1972) and The Rake’s Progress (1982) with numerous designs for stage and ballet. Jarman’s first films were experimental Super 8mm shorts, his first full-length feature film Sebastiane was released in 1976, followed by selected films Jubilee (1978), Angelic Conversation (1985), Caravaggio (1986), The Garden (1990) and Edward II (1991).

Selected solo exhibitions: Sarah Bradley’s Gallery, London (1978); Edward Totah Gallery, London (1982); ICA, London (1984); Richard Salmon Ltd., London (1987) and Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester (1994). Jarman also wrote several books, including the autobiographical Dancing Ledge (1984) and two volumes of memoirs, Modern Nature (1992) and At Your Own Risk (1992). Derek Jarman’s Garden, which documents the creation of his extraordinary garden at Dungeness was published in 1995.

Derek Jarman x Pride at IMMA Event
Lecture, Conversation, and Book Launch: Derek Jarman’s Prospect Cottage by Gilbert McCarragher, in conversation with Seán Kissane.
Saturday 27 June / 6pm – 8pm
Location: Lecture Room
In 2018, photographer Gilbert McCarragher was asked to create a visual record of Prospect Cottage, the iconic Dungeness house of artist, filmmaker and gay rights activist, Derek Jarman. Situated on the austere and windswept shingle beach near the looming nuclear power station, the house and surrounding garden has become an artwork in its own right, drawing Jarman devotees and curious onlookers from around the globe. Gilbert will present an illustrated lecture describing his project, followed by a conversation with Seán Kissane, curator of the 2019 exhibition, Derek Jarman: PROTEST! The lecture will be followed by a book launch.

Helen Cammock
The Long Note, 2008
Colour, stereo; 99 mins, 30 secs

About the film
Exploring social histories through film, photography, print, text and performances, Helen Cammock creates multiple and layered narratives that are not linear, allowing the cyclical nature of history to be revealed. Through these devices Cammock explores the motivation for women’s participation in the civil rights movement, the invisibility of women in the historical narrative of the time, and how it impacted family life and the notion of loss. The Long Note is an attempt to articulate the variety of political positions taken by women during the movement; there was no one unifying position or one identity but a multitude of voices that permeated a turbulent time in Derry.

The Long Note is a partial move towards redressing the lack of the female voice within the historical narrative, and to recognise the need to highlight the centrality of women in what was a pivotal moment in Derry and Ireland’s history.

As part of the Living Canvas at IMMA programme, this screening of The Long Note links to the themes of the exhibition We realised the power of it – Derry Film and Video Workshop, an exhibition-project by Sara Greavu and Ciara Phillips, running until 22 September 2024.

About the artist
Helen Cammock works across moving image, photography, writing, poetry, spoken word, song, performance, printmaking and installation. An interest in histories, authorship, storytelling and the excavation of lost, unheard and buried voices lead Cammock to map her own creative processes on to social and political situations. Cammock’s work draws on material from Nina Simone, Philip Larkin, James Baldwin, The Housemartins, Walter Benjamin, Franz Fanon and others to reveal the way in which we construct our own personal collage of influences and reference points to establish a sense of self, context and history.

Recent screenings include the Serpentine Cinema Series and Tate Artists Moving Image Screening Programme. Cammock has exhibited at Cubitt, London; Galerie Futura Alpha Nova, Berlin; The Tetley, Leeds; Open Source Contemporary Arts Festival; Hollybush Gardens, London; 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, London; and Void, Derry, Northern Ireland. Her written work has been published in several journals and magazines. Cammock is currently working on a project with Serpentine Galleries; Novel, Reading International and a new commission with Film and Video Umbrella, Touchstones Gallery and The Photographers Gallery. In 2018 Cammock was awarded the Max Mara Prize for Women which includes a forthcoming exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery, London and Maramotti Collection, Italy.

Joseph Noonan-Ganley 
Our Bed, 2022
Film: single channel, 4k video, colour, sound 
21:12 min

About the film
Our Bed begins with the reconstructed voice of a Uruguayan rugby player who crashed in the Andes in 1972. He describes the design, construction and use of the team’s emergency beds inside the fuselage of the wreckage. Images, sound and text from archives, mass media and personal notebooks make space for viewers to cohabit these beds, to partake in the imaginative composition that they produce. The protagonist elaborates upon the methods that the boys improvised, drawing on an example: a contemporary alphabet fashioned out of jockstraps. This cliché of homosexual identification helps express the different contexts that the boys find themselves in (bed, plane, book). In interjecting footage of a live televised rugby match, rain and mud disturb the clean capture and transmission of the event. Streaks from the player’s bodies are animated into smears on the video screen, activating their gestures and blurring the subsequent content for the viewers of this video.

About the artist 
Joseph Noonan-Ganley (b.1987) is an Irish artist working across video, sculpture, photography, textiles and writing. Recent exhibitions include Circa Prize, Piccadilly Lights, London; Reflex Blue, Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin; Loading Bay, National Sculpture Factory, Cork. His book The Cesspool of Rapture, Artist’s Texts 2012-2024 is forthcoming from Ma Bibliothèque in 2024.

CGI, AI and technical consultancy: Harry Sanderson. Translation: Maria Jose Legelen and Núria Querol.

Supported by The Elephant Trust and The Art Department, Goldsmiths, University of London.

Thursday 13 June, 6 – 8pm
Bruce Conner, CROSSROADS, 1976

Thursday 27 June, 6 – 8pm
Derek Jarman, The Angelic Conversation, 1985

Thursday 25 July, 6 – 8pm
Joseph Noonan-Ganley, Our Bed, 2022