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Dialogue for Two Players

"The tellingly titled Dialogue for Two Players, also 1984, moves into quasi-dramatic space, in which the seemingly spontaneous relationships, are revealed not just as a construct but also as a complex puzzle. It implicitly comments on and critiques the 'confessional' modes of video and its illusion of real presence. It thus rejects that was at the time a dominant style in artist's video, turning on its head the simpler versions of the slogan that 'the personal is political'. At the same time it is a political work in a different sense, questioning the popular TV format of the in-depth personal interview which it ironizes. As such, and with Partridge himself playing the part of interviewer/director, it is his most overt 'intervention' into documentary drama even as he subverts it." - Al Rees

Dialogue for Two Players

NR 1984
Some Protection

Made as one of a four part series exploring different aspects of women and the law, on which all the women animators involved researched and worked as a group, before then making individual films, each quite different in content, tone and style. Based on the real life experiences of Josie O Dwyer, the film uses her voice as commentary, taken from hours of taped conversation with the filmmaker. Different styles of drawing convey her emotions and the devastating effects detention and imprisonment have on young girls put away 'for their own protection'.

Some Protection

NR 1987
Absence of Satan

A beautiful woman screams at something unseen off camera. Paul Newman appears eating salad and soon the famous sequence of Paul Newman closing a car door cut with a helicopter takes place. Absence of Satan is probably one of George Barber's best Scratch works and is a deft reworking of cinematic narrative and cliché. George Barber is one of the pioneers of Scratch Video which emerged in the UK during the mid-1980s. Scratch video makes use of found images from films and television, cutting seemingly incongruous imagery together to make a new meaning; it has been compared to the record-scratching techniques of hip-hop music, hence the name. (lux.org.uk)

Absence of Satan

NR 1985
Tilt

Made using footage from USA Olympics in Los Angeles 1984 and snippets of Alistair Cooke's America: A Personal History of the United States. The footage was combined at Goldsmith's Art Department using an unusual Grass Valley mixer that had oscillating wipes which created the signature colours and wiggly lines. (Modern Art Oxford) Barber was always the most polished of the Scratch video artists, and Tilt shows his ability to make seductive, easy-viewing pieces, while maintaining a subversive undercurrent.

Tilt

NR 1984
Chant Down Greenham

The artist has described the making of Chant Down Greenham as follows: “‘This was a seminal work. It came out of a moment when many of us from Ireland gathered at the women’s peace camp, nuclear missile base at Greenham Common (1983), England. The protest ‘Sounds Around the Base’ had 30,000 to 50,000 women surrounding the 9-mile perimeter fence all making sounds on the hour every hour. There I heard a small group of women keening. I was very struck by this. It was moving, powerful. Back in my studio on Gardiner Street, Dublin my work changed. I changed. It became necessary to use my voice and my body.  Though the equipment was basic or non-existent, it happened, and was essential and seemed vital. I developed a series of calls and out of silence the ‘caoin’ emerged. With the prompt and help of women artist friends I understood something really important and necessary there. I understood I had to pursue this.”

Chant Down Greenham

NR 1984