The Drift (2017). HD video with sound, 50' 29” (video still). Courtesy of the artist.

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Somerset House Studios resident

Maeve Brennan

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www.maevebrennan.co.uk

Visual Artist. 

Somerset House Studios
New Wing

Led by a documentary approach, Maeve’s work looks at the historical and political resonance of sites and materials, culminating mainly in moving image and installation works. She has had recent solo exhibitions at The Whitworth, University of Manchester; Spike Island, Bristol and Chisenhale Gallery, London (all 2017). Other exhibitions include Jerusalem Pink, OUTPOST, Norwich; Rough House, The Glue Factory, Glasgow; At the Seams: A Political History of Palestinian Embroidery, Dar el Nimer, Beirut (all 2016); KURZ / DUST, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw; Video Works, Metropolis Empire Sofil, Beirut (both 2015); and A Museum of Immortality, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut (2014).

Beit Iksa Boys (2013), video still. Courtesy of the artist.
Beit Iksa Boys (2013), video still. Courtesy of the artist.

Brennan was a fellow of the arts study programme, Home Workspace Program at Ashkal Alwan in Beirut (2013 -14). She is a member and co-founder of Sharna Pax, a film collective working across the fields of anthropology, documentary and visual art.

There is a question of knowledge production that runs through the work, how it is acquired formally and informally... There is no threshold or moral division between subjects as Brennan documents the men who maintain objects. Each man is, in his own way…expert and smuggler. So while Brennan's new work presents alternate images of individuals holding onto life through objects in the Middle East, it also presents a paradigm shift to western viewers, or certainly it does to this one

Isobel Harbison - Profile in Art Monthly (May 2017)
The Drift (2017), trailer. Produced by Chisenhale Gallery, London and Spike Island Bristol.

During the residency, Maeve will develop research for a new film commission.

Header image: The Drift (2017) video still. Courtesy of the artist.