The shortlist for the 2023 Film London Jarman Award has been announced. The award showcases the urgency, creativity, and humour of exciting new approaches to the moving image. The six shortlisted artists are known for their work which has been described as work “characterised by a sense of resilience and joy, creating new visual languages and fresh perspectives on often tough and complex subjects.” Ayo Akingbade and Julianknxx have also been shortlisted for the award.
Image courtesy of the artist
“The Film London Jarman Award is central to our support of artist filmmakers, celebrating the spirit of experimentation and imagination. Featuring works that are innovative and boundary-pushing, we are thrilled to reveal this year’s shortlist. Congratulations go to all six shortlisted artists and I would like to thank our funders, Arts Council England, for their vital support and to our event partners at the Barbican,” says Adrian Wootton OBE, Chief Executive of Film London and the British Film Commission.
Image courtesy of Josiah Moktar
Ayo Akingbade is an artist, writer and director based in London. She works predominantly with film and installation addressing themes of power, urban space and stance. Akingbade engages with the fluid boundaries between the self and the other by gathering local and cultural experiences in intimate and playful interpretations.
Her work has been shown at the Whitechapel Gallery, London; ICA, London and Towner Gallery, Eastbourne. Her recent screenings include; New Directors/New Films; MoMA and Directors’ Fortnight; Cannes Film Festival. Her first major solo institutional exhibition, ‘Show Me The World Mister’, opened at Chisenhale Gallery in November 2022 and is touring until 2024, venues include Spike Island, Bristol, and BALTIC, Centre for Contemporary Art.
Image courtesy of Marc Hibbert
Julianknxx is a poet, visual artist and filmmaker from Sierra Leone. His multidisciplinary practice combines poetry with performance, film, and music in an effort to convey the indescribable aspects of human experiences while examining the structures through which we live. Julianknxx draws on West African oral traditions to question how we construct both local and global perspectives by casting his own practice as a “living archive” or a “history from below.” He does this through a body of work that challenges fixed ideas of identity and unravels linear Western historical and socio-political narratives, attempting to reconcile how it feels to exist primarily in liminal spaces.
Julianknxx has exhibited and performed in the UK and internationally at Whitechapel Gallery, London; Gulbenkian, Lisbon and Stedelijk Museum, Netherlands. He has exhibitions and performances coming up at Art Basel, Basel, (2023); Barbican Centre, London (2023) and Tate Modern, London (2023).
Image courtesy of the artist
Image courtesy of the artist
The winner of the Jarman Award will be announced in November 2023 at the Barbican Centre in London. In the months leading up to the event, art and film lovers can view the shortlisted artists’ work at any of the cultural venues, including Nottingham Contemporary, Spike Island (Bristol), g39 (Cardiff), LUX Scotland (Glasgow), and Towner Art Gallery (Eastbourne), as part of the nationwide touring programme.
