Launched in June 2015 and running for a year, White Screen presents a newly selected artists’ film each month – for a limited period – alongside specially-commissioned essays.
Conceived in collaboration between Film and Video Umbrella (FVU) and The White Review, White Screen aims to encourage a dialogue between present and past, text and moving image, film and digital media. Once a marginalised and underfunded form, artists’ moving image is as common to contemporary art as photography, painting, performance and sculpture. The exponential growth of digital networks, meanwhile, has enabled new forms of encounter and exchange, and provided fresh contexts for the reception of artists’ moving image.
Drawing on FVU’s twenty-five year history of commissioning, producing and supporting artists’ film, White Screen enables important works to be accessed afresh by a generation who might not otherwise have encountered them. These encounters are mediated through text – essays, polemics, and personal reflections. Reflecting on the changing role of artists’ moving image in the digital age – its production, consumption and dissemination – each new essay provides a contemporary response to a historical moment.
The White Review’s participation in White Screen is made possible by the support of Maureen Paley. Supported by Arts Council England.
A collaboration between The White Review and Film and Video Umbrella, White Screen is a new online initiative showcasing artists’ films alongside the best new writing.
The project selects films from Film and Video Umbrella’s extensive archive – available to watch online for one month only – accompanied by newly-commissioned essays. These texts are not intended as commentaries upon the films they accompany, but rather as explorations of shared themes, subjects or styles.
White Screen exemplifies the commitment of Film and Video Umbrella and The White Review to commissioning and supporting new art and writing.
