Ailbhe Ní Bhriain: Inscriptions (One Here Now)

Category: Artists' Film International — Published: 7 Apr 2020

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Inscriptions (One Here Now) (Trailer), 2018, single channel film, 14:54 mins. Selected by Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.

Artists’ Film International is a collaborative project featuring film, video and animation from around the world. During 2020, works responding to the theme of language unfold across all 20 partner organisations. As our venues’ doors may be shut, we are carrying on sharing exciting new international work online.

Inscriptions (One Here Now) (2018) by Ailbhe Ní Bhriain draws us down into the dark vertiginous depths of a quarry interior. The camera traces geological deep-time, the scars left by machinery on the rock surfaces, and the sprayed industrial notations that codify the commodification and disappearance of landscape. Embedded within the film are references to the ancient Irish language of Ogham, a script which took the form of linear strokes cut into vertical standing stones. In these inscriptions the film finds a metaphor for the Anthropocene – the current geological era in which human behaviour is the dominant force shaping environment and climate.

Inscriptions (One Here Now) was originally commissioned by Miranda Driscoll as part of One Here Now, The Brian O’Doherty/ Patrick Ireland Project, supported by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Inscriptions (One Here Now), 2018, single channel film, 14:54 mins. Selected by Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain (b. 1978, Ireland) is known for her use of film, computer generated imagery and photography. Her work has shown widely, with exhibitions and screenings at RHA, Dublin; Broad Museum, Michigan; Domobaal, London; Paris Photo; Reina Sofia Museum Museum, Madrid; Caixa Forum, Barcelona; Centre of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki; and Centrale, Brussels among others. She is represented by domobaal gallery, London

Crawford Art Gallery in Cork, Ireland, is a national cultural institution, dedicated to contemporary and historical Irish and international visual art. Home to a collection of national importance, it offers a vibrant and dynamic programme of temporary exhibitions.

Ailbhe Ní Bhriain, Inscriptions (One Here Now), 2018, single channel film, 14:54 mins. Selected by Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.

Artists’ Film International (AFI) is a partnership of 20 international organisations that celebrates moving image. Partners are: Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas, USA; Belgrade Cultural Centre, Belgrade, Serbia; Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden; CAC, Vilnius, Lithuania; Centre for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan (CCAA), Kabul, Afghanistan; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland; Fundación PROA, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Galleria D’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Bergamo, Italy; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, USA; Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey; Friends of Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa; KWM artcentre, Beijing, China; Mohammad and Mahera Abu Ghazaleh Foundation, Amman, Jordan; Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Russia; Museum of Modern Art, Warsaw, Poland; Video-Forum of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), Berlin, German; Para Site, Hong Kong; Project 88, Mumbai, India; Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromsø, Norway; Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK.