Broadcast Lago


Past Exhibitions | Present Exhibition | Future Exhibitions | About | Contact | Press

Past Exhibition at Broadcast Gallery

Susan Thomson FIRE PRACTICE THEATRE

June 10th - June 17th     

video still

Actors Joseph Paul Travers, David Coakley, Stills/cinematography Piers McGrail, Sound design Sven Anderson, written and directed by Susan Thomson

Funded by The Arts Council of Ireland

Residing somewhere between fiction and documentary, this two screen film shows firefighters practising their skills on a tall purpose built house in a fire station. This is depicted as if it were a piece of theatre, a rehearsal or ritual in a theatre where only one play is performed. There are different levels of fiction. The script is performed by actors playing firefighters. Fake lives are saved. The house is unlived-in, sinister, the piece reminiscent of a psyche where trauma and desire are endlessly replayed.

Artist's Biography

Susan Thomson has exhibited video, film and writing work at venues internationally including at the UK National Review of Live Art, X Initiative and Artbook @ PS1, New York, at 'No Soul for Sale' in the Tate Modern, London, the International Video Art festivals of Alcoi and Valencia, Spain and HDFEST Film Festival Portland, Oregon. She holds a Masters in European Literature from Magdalen College, Oxford University and a Masters in Visual Arts Practices from DLIADT, Dublin. She has written for books and publications including Circa, The Times and Women's News and has received a number of Visual Arts bursaries, including an Arts Council New Work Award, a South Dublin County Council Award and Culture Ireland Award. She is currently producing a short film for the Irish Film Board and is part of the Fire Station Artists' Studios Think Tank programme with Kuratorisk Aktion.

www.susanthomson.co.uk