A new co-commission with Site Gallery. 

In partnership with Film Hub North, led by Showroom Workstation. Proud to be part of the BFI Film Audience Network.

A two-channel film installation: a sci-fi epilogue to Barry Hines’ BBC TV production ‘Threads’, which chronicled the potential effects of nuclear holocaust on Sheffield’s citizens.

The artwork will imagine a transformed society in which Medieval and Victorian customs and systems prevail. Radiation sickness and environmental diseases affect human vision and speech, leading to a two-tier language spoken by two different castes. One caste survives in a flame-lit subterranea communicating via a form of highly broken English, whilst the second lives above ground within a technologically superior environment and uses vocal expression based on tone and texture. Filming will take place in two locations: a cavernous Victorian flood-relief system and constructed set modelled on a defunct choral chamber in Sheffield City Hall known as the ‘Angels Gallery’.  I will collaborate with local residents drawn from singing and acting groups, bands, language societies and Larp clubs that become the actors who populate these worlds.

Tuesday – Saturday. 11.00am – 5.30pm.

ALSO – Artist Talk: with Matt Stokes – Wed 1st Oct,

Hear directly from the artist Matt Stokes about  his new film and audio installation, In Absence of  the Smoky God, commissioned by Sensoria Festival  and Site Gallery. We’ll be exploring the ideas and techniques behind the making of the work, from the influence of Barry Hines’ 1984 BBC docu-drama Threads, to Matt’s experience of working with a team of local vocalists, speech therapists, costume designers, lighting experts and more.
Dr. David Forrest of the University of Sheffield, an expert in British social realist cinema,
will join the conversation to discuss the Sheffield-based archive of filmmaker Barry Hines.

Advance booking strongly advised.
www.artist-talk-matt-stokes.eventbrite.co.uk

photo credit: Pixelwitch Pictures