Early-career artists selected for Film London's FLAMIN Fellowship development scheme
Latest 14 Jul 2021News Story
FLAMIN Fellowship 2021/22 artists (top left to bottom right) Mahenderpal Sorya, Shamica Ruddock, Chris Zhongtian Yuan, Sweatmother, Seema Mattu, Alan Cunningham
Six early-career artist-filmmakers have been selected for the fourth edition of Film London’s FLAMIN Fellowship scheme, a development programme offering mentoring, seed finance and professional development alongside access to audiences, curators and established artist advisors.
Taking vastly different approaches to the moving image, the selected artists utilise hybrid documentary, performance, 3D world-building, puppetry, collage, archival footage, text and poetry within their varied work. Projects supported through this round of The Fellowship explore bold and diverse themes, offering insights into the mythical landscapes of Ireland and North Africa, queer counter-histories and rainbow capitalism, as well as Afro-Caribbean folklore. Other projects will explore systems of caste, diasporic memory and transgenerational trauma through web-se-ries, 16mm filmmaking and appropriated Bollywood cinema.
The selected artists are:
Alan Cunningham, Sangar (2020), video still. Courtesy of the artist
Chris Zhongtian Yuan, Close Closer (2020-21), installation view. Courtesy of the artist
The FLAMIN Fellowship was founded to give a career-changing opportunity to the most exciting talent this country has to offer, and in recent years we have seen our Fellows grow in recognition. We’re delighted to bring together this new cohort of genre-bending, intellectually challenging and technically innovative practitioners. Our thanks go to Arts Council England for their invaluable support of The Fellowship, a programme now in its fourth year and garnering a reputation for spotting and nurturing the highest caliber of new artists’ moving image talent.Adrian Wootton OBE, Chief Executive of Film London and the British Film Commission
Alumni of The FLAMIN Fellowship include recent winner of awards at Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival and the Arts Foundation, Onyeka Igwe, as well as Ollie Dook, Jennifer Martin, Antonia Luxem and Max Colson, who have staged solo exhibitions at Humber Street Gallery, Hull; Turf Projects, Croydon; Well Projects, Margate and Vitrine, London, respectively.
Shamica Ruddock The Island is No Home (2020), installation view at Nayland Rock Hotel Margate, photo by Molly Lester. Courtesy of the artist
Seema Mattu, Hijra = Higher (2021), video still. Courtesy of the artist
Previous invited speakers on The FLAMIN Fellowship workshop programme include artists Larry Achiampong, Esther Johnson, Onyeka Igwe, Noor Afshan Mirza & Brad Butler, Hetain Patel, Imran Perretta, Heather Phillipson and Marianna Simnett. Arts organisations including ACME Studios, Arts Council England, Artquest, Auguste Orts, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, BFI, CPH:DOX, DACS, Film and Video Um-brella, Forma, Jerwood Arts, LUX, Tate and the Wellcome Trust have all contributed to the professional development arm of the scheme, and each of the FLAMIN Fellows is provided one-to-one mentoring with Pinky Ghundale, who is producer to Turner Prize and Academy Award winner Steve McQueen.
Mahenderpal Sorya, Empirical Sleepwalks (2019), installation view. Courtesy of the artist
Sweatmother, Soft Exits (2019), video still. Courtesy of the artist
Established in 2017 by Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) and supported by Arts Council England and The Fenton Arts Trust, the Fellowship complements FLAMIN’s wide-ranging programme supporting mid and later-career artists through FLAMIN Productions, the Film London Jarman Award and a range of significant development opportunities.
