Rosalind Nashashibi

In collaboration with Chisenhale Gallery, Picture This has commissioned a new film by Rosalind Nashashibi set on a cargo ship sailing from Southern Italy to Sweden via Portugal, Britain and Ireland. Bachelor Machines Part 1 is currently being shown at the Scottish Pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale.

In its singular focus of life on board, Nashashibi's latest film can be understood as a genre piece presenting a contemporary version of seafaring whose precedents lie in historical literature, painting and films. The work comes from the artist's interest in depictions of ocean life and voyages. Her influences range from the novel Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon, to Jean Vigo's luminous 1934 film, L'Atalante and Marcel Broodthaers' A Voyage on the North Sea (1973).

Nashashibi sees the Ship's company as the ultimate closed community. Operating under a strict self-imposed hierarchy headed by the absolute authority of the ship's master, the community's off-shore condition gives it the semblance of a floating independent state. The film's rhythm develops from the intensity and claustrophobia inside the ship, counterbalanced by the empty expanse of the ocean and extreme weather conditions. Three different modes of capturing the ship and its crew can be identified: a close and direct observation of the dynamics of individuals in a confined environment, a rich and dream-like rendering of the light and movement of the voyage, and a heavily characterised framing of the ship as animated machine and protagonist.

The realisation of this film was made possible in part by the American Center Foundation. The project has also received funding from Arts Council England and support from Grimaldi Agencies UK Ltd.

Exhibition

15 September - 13 October

Picture This, Bristol

The installation of Bachelor Machines Part 1 also comprises a theatrical sculptual element; this is the result of a collaboration between Nashashibi and artist Enrico David.

Mark Aerial Waller: Midwatch

Nashashibi has invited Mark Aerial Waller to show Midwatch (1991-2001) alongside Bachelor Machines Part 1. Midwatch is set abroad a battleship recently returned from operation Mosaic; the first British nuclear bomb test in the south Atlantic. A mutineer from the tests and a time travelling caterer from Nelson's fleet remain onboard. A battle of will ensues between the two, as Nelson's geographic progress to power is set against the nuclear bombs tests of the 1950's; a collision between barely remembered Imperial omnipotence and a barely understood technology of nuclear manipulation.

10 June - 2 November 2007

Scotland and Venice 2007
Palazzo Zenobio, Dorsoduro 2596 Venice, Italy

www.scotlandandvenicebiennale.com

13 April - 27 May 2007

Chisenhale, London

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