For the next two weeks we welcome Artist Jim Brouwer to continue our Art Diggin' session at Crate Diggin'.
Jim Brouwer recently won the 2014 Castle Open Grand Prize with a video installation made with performance artist Simon Raven.
He has worked in collaboration with Turner Prize and Jarman Award nominee Marvin Gaye Chetwynd on Her last film, 'Hermitos Children 2' A Studio Voltaire Commission.
For his Art Diggin' session, Jim Brouwer will be experimenting with new ways of seeing old ‘unseen’ video works.
END OF STUDY (2 screen video projection 2005-2015)
Jim Brouwer 2015
This series of videos uses material from found 16mm films from the 1970s. The films are time and motion studies made in a variety of workplaces and were produced by Birmingham Polytechnic.
The division of labour between male and female workers is very apparent. The women are secretaries and administrators, completing paperwork, filing and photo copying. Whereas the men are doing wood work and joinery, bee hive and peg making.
What I find fascinating about this footage is that the people who conduct time and motion studies believe they can can time workers using these films. 16mm film is variable in speed in relation to the condition of the projector and also the film stock, so any precise time measurements wouldn't it be very accurate. Time and motion studies were also used to put pressure on workers to perform faster.
The origins of time and motion studies were to place emphasis on the content of a fair day’s work, and sought to maximise productivity irrespective of the physiological cost to the worker. The visual record of how work had been done, emphasising areas for improvement and the films also served the purpose of training workers about the best way to perform their work. I want to show, by separating these films into ‘male film’ and ‘female film’ how the male work is accelerated and the female work is prolonged, thus pointing out the inequality.
Jim Brouwer has been on the live visuals scene for 15 years with most noticeable gigs with Roots Manuva, Roni Size’s Reprezent, GhostFace Killah and Andy C, he has also been commissioned and shown work at Lovebytes Festival, Sheffield, International Review of Live Arts. Glasgow, Sonar Festival, Barcelona, Loom Festival, Nottingham, Glade Electronic Music Festival, Note on Gallery, Berlin.
Jim Brouwer’s work includes video, films, photos, media art and installations. By using an ever-growing archive of found documents to create autonomous artworks, Brouwer formalises the coincidental and emphasises the conscious process of composition that is behind the seemingly random works. The thought processes, which are supposedly private, highly subjective and unfiltered in their references to dream worlds, are frequently revealed as assemblages.
His films feature coincidental, accidental and unexpected connections which make it possible to revise art history and, even better, to complement it. Combining unrelated aspects lead to surprising analogies. By experimenting with aleatoric processes, he reflects on the closely related subjects of archive and memory. This often results in an examination of both the human need for ‘conclusive’ stories and the question whether anecdotes ‘fictionalise’ history.
His works are an investigation of concepts such as authenticity and objectivity by using an encyclopaedic approach and quasi-scientific precision and by referencing documentaries, ‘fact-fiction’ and popular scientific equivalents.
Upcoming projects include working with chefs Daniel Morgan and Chris Denney to create a live, audio visual dinning experience, at Agora collective Berlin (TBC)
Event Details:
Crate Diggin' at Rough Trade Nottingham
Friday 27 March - 7pm - 11pm
Friday 6 March - 7pm - 2am
(See the Confetti Industry Week Event article)
Free Entry