Emily Wardill
Fulll Firearms
Video and Magazine Archive
XARCHIVE
Recent publishing activities at
X Marks the Bökship
27 January–9 April 2012
Opening: 26 January 2012, 7 pm
Badischer Kunstverein
Waldstraße 3
76133 Karlsruhe, Germany
Emily Wardill
Fulll Firearms
With Fulll Firearms Badischer Kunstverein presents an extensive solo exhibition by British artist Emily Wardill. The exhibition is organized around Wardill’s latest film, Fulll Firearms, which was produced with support from Badischer Kunstverein, and will receive its German premiere in this exhibition. At Badischer Kunstverein Fulll Firearms will be accompanied by new sculptures, collages and sound-based works that have a close connection with the film.
Wardill’s film Fulll Firearms is based around the genre of the melodrama but confronts the structure of linear narration with a breaking up, shifting and dissolving, all of which represent characteristics of her films. The film revolves around the relationships between the protagonists as well as their behaviour in times of conflict. Wardill creates a tension between characters that exist at the borders of physical and mental capacity: instability, paranoia and a loss of reality are not found on the edges of modern society, but at its centre. They represent the drivers of a plot that questions the normalisation and control of social behaviour.
In Fulll Firearms it is the delusion of the figure of Imelda that draws the story along and undermines the distinction between imagination and reality. Imelda is the daughter of an arms manufacturer and is possessed by the idea that she will be haunted by the ghosts of those killed by her father’s weapons. She uses her inheritance to pay for a large house intended to accommodate the ghosts and lessen her guilt. Her fantasies are contrasted with the targeted approach of the architect who tries to implement her wishes architecturally, but whose grasp of reality becomes increasingly unsettled—the building is occupied by squatters who Imelda believes to be the ghosts she has been expecting.
The construction of communication and language is another important element in the artist’s work, as is the relationship between sound and image. Just as images overlap, withdraw or fracture, a multiplicity of oral and musical elements interweave with one another. The Soundtrack for Fulll Firearms, by Emily Wardill and Marc Shearer, references the Italian progressive rock band Goblin who were famous in the 1970s for their film music. The exhibition devotes a section to this soundtrack. A record is being produced in cooperation with Apparent Extent, Cologne and LUX London.
Emily Wardill (b. 1977) lives in London.
The film Fulll Firearms was commissioned by If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution (Amsterdam); Serpentine Gallery (London) and Film London’s FLAMIN Productions. Co-produced by FLAMIN Productions, City Projects (London) with support of M HKA (Antwerp), Badischer Kunstverein (Karlsruhe) and FRAC Champagne-Ardenne (Reims). Additional support by the European Commission (Brussels) and Mondriaan Foundation (Amsterdam).
The exhibition is kindly supported by British Council.
Special thanks to STANDARD (OSLO) and Altman Siegel.
Video and Magazine Archive
XARCHIVE
Recent publishing activities at
X Marks the Bökship
X Marks the Bökship is a bookshop and project space for independent publishers in London. It specializes in publishing works, journals and discourses by artists and designers. It promotes contemporary publishing activity by hosting launches, events and production facilities that bring together a network of individual practitioners. Projects include Publisher of the Month, Writer in Residence, Publisher’s Lunch and the XALPHABET, a print edition of 26 Xs by 26 artists. The XARCHIVE presents a selection of recent publishing activity by X Marks the Bökship at Badischer Kunstverein.
TALKS & EVENTS
Friday, 27 January, 6 pm
Presentation
Eleanor Vonne Brown/X Marks the Bökship:
From the Page to the Stage and Back Again
Friday, 10 February, 8 pm
Talk
Olaf Karnik:
Giallo Scores – Italian Thriller Music from the 1970s and 80s
Record release “Fulll Firearms” DJ Olaf Karnik
Saturday, 11 February, 7 pm
Filmscreening
Palindromes and Ready Maids
Presentation of early short films by Emily Wardill
with an introduction by Mike Sperlinger (LUX, London).
Wednesday, 29 February, 7 pm
Filmscreening
Game Keepers Without Game
(Emily Wardill, 2009, Video, 76′)
