On Saturday 6 May, 5pm, In the Shadow of the Hand and Deveron Projects held the final TV Dinners Film Club. This month, the artists invited everyone to an installation of a short film montage of footage collected through the project and projected on the new silver screen, marking the end of a 7-month residency. This event was an opportunity to view and talk about the work with the artists and community members that have contributed to the project since October 2022, over tea/beer and popcorn in the Artist House, a Deveron Projects' artist residency space.
Over the previous six months In the Shadow of the Hand, artists Sarah Forrest and Virginia Hutchison, had been hosting a monthly film club in the Artists' House – TV Dinners. Through workshops, screenings, meals and conversations, Sarah and Virginia explored communal making processes – from camera-less filmmaking workshops with Alexander Hetherington and pouring molten aluminium into chip trays, to cooking up homemade haggis and creating space for conversations about art and criticality.
In conversation with film-club participants, TV Dinners were exploring the practices of filmmakers such as Duncan Marquiss, John Smith, and Maeve Brennan and asking what it means to be critically close to something. Working alongside artists and chefs Luke Collins and Kawther Luay, Sarah and Virginia looked specifically at the role of the body in critical theory and how we think through making together.
At each monthly event a set of cast aluminium tea trays have accompanied the dinners, screening and conversations. Coming to the end of the project, Sarah joined Virginia at the new arts foundry (Fùirneis Hebrides) on the Isle of Lewis, melting down the trays to make a large silver screen. The screen, made up of the aluminium trays (and the meals and conversations that have taken place round them), acts as documentation of the project and the conversations that have happened around it over the last six months.
Schedule
Saturday 6 May, 12-5pm: Footage shown on loop
Saturday 6 May, 5-7pm: TV Dinners Film Club; a conversation with the artists
Saturday 6 May, 12-5pm: Footage shown on loop
Saturday 6 May, 5-7pm: TV Dinners Film Club; a conversation with the artists
About the Project
TV Dinners was a a project by artists Sarah Forrest and Virginia Hutchison, a monthly winter film club and an invitation to come together to watch a film, have a meal and conversation. The films shown at the film club were a mixture of short films and feature films by filmmakers and artists, selected by In the Shadow of the Hand to explore the questions: what does it mean to be social today? Post-lockdown and with long winter nights, how do we connect and socialise? What does this look and feel like? TV Dinners are social, experimental and collaborative.
TV Dinners was a a project by artists Sarah Forrest and Virginia Hutchison, a monthly winter film club and an invitation to come together to watch a film, have a meal and conversation. The films shown at the film club were a mixture of short films and feature films by filmmakers and artists, selected by In the Shadow of the Hand to explore the questions: what does it mean to be social today? Post-lockdown and with long winter nights, how do we connect and socialise? What does this look and feel like? TV Dinners are social, experimental and collaborative.
