First monograph dedicated to British filmmaker and video
artist Stephen Sutcliffe. Including commissioned essays and an
interview with the artist, At Fifty examines over twenty years of
film collages practice,
delving into Sutcliffe's extensive use of television archives
and critical reflection on British cultural identity.
At Fifty is the first catalogue dedicated to Stephen Sutcliffe. Both
a microcosm and macrocosm of the processes at play in his works, it is also
something of an artist's book, one that, typical of the artist's critical
practice, formally addresses questions about the value of the monologue, the
archive, and the status of the artist. At Fifty documents how Sutcliffe's work has developed and how the
means for channeling his deconstructive sensibility has been honed. It
includes commissioned essays and an interview with the artist. Dan Fox's
essay, "Be In My Broadcast, When This Is Over," looks at television, that
one-time pillar of British culture that was as formative for him as it was
for Sutcliffe. "Overlaid, not removed," by Ilsa Colsell, focuses on
Sutcliffe's use of collage for the deft yet deliberately overt repurposing
of signs and symbols. And an interview conducted by Michelle Cotton delves
into Sutcliffe's assimilation of interruptions, creative blocks, and
anxiety. Taken together with the artist's vision for this special
publication, At Fifty brings to life, for the first time in book
form, a remarkable and distinctive practice that now spans over twenty
years.
Filmmaker and video artist
Stephen Sutcliffe (born 1968 in Harrogate, lives and works in Glasgow)
creates film collages from
an extensive archive of
British television, film sound, broadcast images and spoken word
recordings which he has been collecting since childhood. Often reflecting
on aspects of British culture and identity, the results are melancholic,
poetic and satirical amalgams which subtly tease out and critique ideas of
class-consciousness and cultural authority. Through an extensive editing
process Sutcliffe’s works pitch sound against image to subvert predominant
narratives, generating alternative readings through the
juxtaposition and synchronization of visual and aural material.
