The Screen

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Anthony Shaplandthe [...] space

12 November - 05 January 2014

Examining the thresholds of blandness and boredom, filmworks play out in times and spaces that are generally considered invisible or overlooked. An ongoing obsession has been the fabrication of 'real' moments within documented footage and an engagement with filmmaking itself - the scripting, editing and artificial nature of film. Recent works have looked at the role of the surrogate or stand-in character and the questionable role of the biographer. 

Through my work, with its mixture of documentary and fiction, from periods of intense activity to long silences, I want to allow a space for contemplation. The line between truth and fiction is always blurred and viewing and reviewing film has heightened my awareness of the fictions created from these edited moments of reality. It is the analysis of unpredictable details and accidents that exposes infinite potential narratives. I look for significance in the everyday and seek to expand fleeting moments and interstices. Beginnings and full stops become part of a wider arena; they take centre stage and become the main event. It is in these moments we are held between expectation and the unknown. It is only by holding up a mirror to ourselves and the minutiae of our actions and interactions that we can even begin to develop a sense of empathy and understanding. Just as importantly it is only then that we begin to comprehend the space between us, the doubt that exists between what you know, and what I understand.

About | Anthony Shapland

Anthony Shapland lives and works in Cardiff. He has exhibited nationally and internationally. Recent exhibitions include To Pay Respect To The Generosity of The Three-Minute Punk-Rock Song, CRATE, Margate, Memory Of A Hope, Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool, The painting, Supercollider, Blackpool, LISTE - The Young Art Fair, Basel, Portrait (For a Screenplay) of Beth Harmon, Limoncello, London UK. He also writes for several art journals and founded g39 in 1998 where he currently curates. 

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