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Locative Memories:

Locative Memories:. Site-Specific Video Installations in Northern Irish Prisons. Old Borders, New Technologies: Discourses in Contemporary Visual Culture in Northern Ireland. Technological and aesthetic developments NI moving image production Key artists, film-makers, performers

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Locative Memories:

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  1. Locative Memories: Site-Specific Video Installations in Northern Irish Prisons

  2. Old Borders, New Technologies: Discourses in Contemporary Visual Culture in Northern Ireland • Technological and aesthetic developments • NI moving image production • Key artists, film-makers, performers • Video installation, performance art, independent film-making • ‘Troubles’/‘post-conflict’ themes • Contextualised by: • New media; expanded cinema; performance art; post-colonialism; social control, etc. • Challenging traditional notions of National Cinema and artistic canons

  3. Catherine Elwes • ‘Video is the default medium of the twenty-first century. It is everywhere, trapped on monitors and computer screens and projected, cinema-style, onto pristine gallery walls, across public spaces and onto the hallowed surfaces of national museums.’ (Video Art, A Guided Tour, p. 1) • ‘Discredited as the medium of truth, video in the 1990s was more often discussed for what it couldn’t do than for what it actually achieved.’ (Video Art, A Guided Tour, p. 163)

  4. Paper outline • Inside Stories: Memories from the Maze and Long Kesh Prison, dir. Cahal McLaughlin (2004) • Inside Stories exhibition in Crumlin Road Gaol, March 2009 • Their Stories, dir. Patsy Mullan (2009) • Exhibited in Context Gallery, Derry, September 2009 • Stories told naturally • Personal accounts • Simultaneous multiple narratives

  5. HMP Maze • British government refused ‘political’/’special category status to paramilitary prisoners • H-Blocks built • Protests over treatment • Closed in 2000

  6. Inside Stories • Interviews with Billy Hutchinson, Gerry Kelly, and Desi Waterworth • Ownership of stories/collaboration vital • Prisons Memory Archive • Different stories told separately

  7. Billy Hutchinson • Ex-loyalist prisoner for murder • Advocated loyalist ceasefire • Key member of PUP • Had not returned to the site before • Site-reactive memory • Little media experience

  8. Billy Hutchinson • Held in Long Kesh nissen compound • Former RAF base • Vacated in late 1980s • Had remained untouched but now razed • Plenty of material to work with

  9. Gerry Kelly • Ex-republican prisoner for weapons trafficking and bombs • Transferred to Maze from Brixton • Key figure in peace process and Sinn Fein • Media aware • Had returned since release

  10. Gerry Kelly • 1 block preserved in case peace talks broke down • Education/debates • Discussions led to peace process • Solidarity among inmates

  11. Desi Waterworth • Prison officer • Serving in HMP Maghaberry in 2004 • Security routines and regulations • ‘back against the wall’ body language • Seldom heard account • Isn’t granted same freedom

  12. Joanna McMinn and Fiona Barber • Added part with Open University tutors at the Maze in the 1970s/80s • Filmed in car journey to Maze • Compare experiences • Audiovisual contrasts to other parts

  13. Crumlin Road Gaol • Site-specific exhibition • Belfast Prison closed 1996 • Museum, gallery, performance space, tourist attraction • Monitors within cells • Teachers’ segment in larger conjoined cell

  14. Crumlin Road Gaol • Spectator empathy for confinement and cold • Sound bleed • Stressed emptiness • Drew viewers towards various voices • Separation reflected real life and interview process

  15. Patsy Mullan’s exhibition • Lecturer in media • Interested in Armagh Women’s Prison • Video accompanied by Visual Residues – stills of Armagh Prison • Now closed • Same protests as Maze in 1970s/80s

  16. Their Stories • Double-channel video • Back-to-back monitors • Headsets/intimacy • Photographic – minimal movement • Slide show and voice • Double imagery (foreground and background)

  17. Their Stories • Rose McCartney • Patricia Moore • Candid accounts of treatment • Piece simplistic in form/presentation • Harrowing stories • Verbal contrasts visual

  18. Paula Blair pblair05@qub.ac.uk www.prisonsmemoryarchive.com

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