Bingo (Single Channel Video, 2mins 37secs, 2007)
Looking Glass
A selection of Video Works
by Michael Fortune
22nd April to 3rd May, 2008
Gallery 3,
Galway Arts Centre
47 Dominick Street, Galway
Phone: 00353 (0)91 565 886
Email:
Web:
From Tuesday 22nd of April Galway Arts Centre presents 'Looking Glass’, a video programme featuring a selection of recently produced video works by Michael Fortune. This screening, which runs in conjunction with the Cúirt International Festival of Literature programme, focuses on the elements of language and time and the relationship which they have with ritual, belief and the everyday.
For the Galway Arts Centre show, Fortune has compiled a body of video works which explore the circumstantial boundaries between art and culture, folklore and interpretation, and fact and fiction. Through a variety of techniques and approaches, Fortune uses the video camera as a tool to decode and re-code these activities, and by doing so exposes the areas where these boundaries overlap and collide.
In all the works the camera remains static, with editing only ever employed out of necessity rather than luxury. This technique provides the viewer with an unhindered and individual viewpoint into each work. Although referring to the forms of documentary, all evidence of the documenter or narrator is removed. Fortune’s practice revolves around the collection of material. His video works are not scripted or storyboarded, instead he generates material out of the relationships and experiences he develops with the people and circumstances he encounters.
Fortune lives and works in County Wexford. He received his MA in Scriptwriting from Dun Laoghaire School of Film, Dublin and BA in Fine Art from Limerick School of Art and Design. Recently he presented solo shows in Triskel (Cork), Wexford Arts Centre (Wexford) and G126 (Galway). Group shows have included 7000IS (Iceland), EV+A (Limerick),House Projects (Dublin & London), Tulca (Galway), Infusion (Limerick), Frieze (Dublin), Vague But True (Denmark), From here to Betweenity (Bristol), Castle of Imagination (Poland) and Conflict & Resolution (Donegal).
Since the beginning of 2008 he has presented works inFAF@The Lab (Dublin),Elysium Gallery (Swansea)and SWGC (Newfoundland). In the coming months he will present a solo show in theGarter Lane Arts Centre (Waterford) whilst presenting works in group events such as The Edinburgh Film Festival (Scotland), Transhift (USA), Art Video Screenings (Sweden) and The Mid-Ulster Film Festival (Tyrone). In January ’08 he launched Departures and Arrivals, a collection of ten new video works commissioned by Wexford County Council. He is currently undertaking a Per Cent for Art Project for Mayo County Council and a new body of writing supported by an Arts Council Projects Award.