Spirit Messages

Spirit Messages is aemi’s 2024 touring programme, an annual selection made to bring together some of the most exciting new moving image work by Irish and international artists. Alongside a variety of other concerns, the artists featured in this programme employ a diverse set of creative strategies to reveal an interconnected world, one in which the medium is not just the message but the means through which the paranormal can engage our attention. From folk tales to esotericism, poppers training videos, horror flicks and sci-fi, the films in ‘Spirit Messages’ draw from an eclectic array of sources to suggest that the idiosyncratic forms of communication we adopt are often choices that are as subversive as they are functional. The program features work by Amanda Rice, Niall Cullen and RossMcClean alongside works by artists Jamie Crewe, Luis Arnias, and Dan Guthrie.
Program, followed by a Q&A:
Echo
by Ross McClean
2023, Ireland/United Kingdom, 12 mins
An operation 10 years ago left Allister with damaged vocal cords and an obstacle to communication. His unusual solution reminds us that community thrives in surprising places.
False Wife
by Jamie Crewe
2022, United Kingdom, 15 mins
False Wife is a poppers training video, but its material is obscure. Its narrative is drawn from a variety of folk tales in which transformation occurs, and relationships happen. Its footage is scavenged from sources that reflect these themes, reduced to slivers of significant imagery, rubbed together.
The Flesh of Language
by Amanda Rice
2023, Ireland, 16.5 mins
The Flesh of Language examines humanity’s impact on Earth’s ecosystems through the lenses of two interrelated mechanics of capitalism: extraction and overproduction.
Terror Has No Shape
by Luis Arnías
2021, Venezuela / United States, 10 mins
Terror Has No Shape follows a mysterious and grotesque, viscous creature. The film fragments the American horror and sci-fi genres to bring the terror of the lived personal and collective experience of racial trauma to the surface. Through effigy, these horrors materialize and are burned.
The Dog Who Became a Frog
Niall Cullen
2023, Ireland, 6.5 mins
The Dog Who Became a Frog delves into the interconnectedness of our world by exploring the idea that every living thing shares the same energy force.
Coaley Peak (A Fragment)
Dan Guthrie
2021, United Kingdom, 6.5 mins
Dan Guthrie’s idea with Coaley Peak was to make a film about Blackness and belonging in the English countryside, taking a family photo of some of his relatives at the Gloucestershire viewpoint Coaley Peak as a starting point. Whilst making the film, something happened.
About aemi
aemi is an Irish organisation funded by The Arts Council that supports and regularly exhibits moving image works by artists and experimental filmmakers. Since its formation in 2016 aemi’s key objective has been to provide support for artists working with the moving image in order to contribute to a developing infrastructure around these practices in Ireland. aemi is dedicated to expanding audiences for this material through regular curated programmes of Irish and international work and to enrich the critical discourse that surrounds the wide range of activity in this area.
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