Ben Rivers Exhibition display for his 16mm film - idea. Interesting.
Ben Rivers is a filmmaker and artist whose work has been shown in many festivals and galleries around the world. His films, which blur the boundaries between documentary and fiction, often take outsiders - people who have separated themselves from mainstream society - as their subjects. His work obliquely explores themes such as 'wilderness', or, as is the case in the film that is being shown in this exhibition, 'freedom'. Using old technology, normally 16mm film shot on a Bolex camera and then developed at home, Rivers creates off-beat narratives that depict and imagine ways of life in marginal or overlooked worlds. Sometimes, when it is shown in art galleries, his work incorporates elements of installation. Ah, Liberty!, a 20 minute black and white film made in 2008, shows aspects of the lives of the children of a family leading an unconventional existence in the Scottish highlands. It will be screened in a hut that has been specially created for this exhibition. (Gallery, 2013)
I find this an interesting way of describing Ben’s work. I first came across Ben Rivers when I took the film seminar with Dara Waldron, where he showed us Ben’s film called ‘Two Years at Sea’ (Two Years at Sea , 2011) as I am writing this I am realising that at the end of my degree, I am back looking at work that I was looking at when I was in second year. A very interesting looped two year. I started researching Ben Rivers as it was suggested to me regarding how Ben shows his film work. He filmed at a location and then created the same content in the gallery, i.e. he re-created the exact old shed in the gallery see below – (IT GAVE ME AN IDEA FOR MY DEGREE SUPER 8 FILM)
