David Dale Gallery and LUX Scotland present: Saoirse Amira Anis

Saoirse Amira Anis – the second in a series of monthly online screenings in partnership with David Dale Gallery.

David Dale Gallery and LUX Scotland are excited to present a series of three monthly online screenings in collaboration with Natasha Ruwona, Siri Black and Saoirse Amira Anis, three Scotland-based artists working with moving image. From June to August, a different artist each month will present a recent moving image work of their own alongside a film that they have selected from the LUX collection. The film programmes will be hosted on David Dale Gallery’s website and will be available to watch for free for the duration of each month. In addition, each artist will present a contextual event to explore themes within their practice.

This is the second screening programme organised by David Dale Gallery and LUX Scotland. The first iteration was produced in collaboration with Hannah James, Sulaïman Majali, Alexander Storey-Gordon and Winnie Herbstein in 2019.

Programme:

A Lesson in Vanity, Saoirse Amira Anis, 2021, 10 mins, 12 secs

A Lesson in Vanity introduces the artist’s alter-ego, Freedom Princess, as she embarks on her journey towards Princesshood. The film follows Freedom as she learns to embrace and appreciate vanity, through which she learns to cast aside the shame she was taught to always carry within her.

This origin story is the product of some of the artist’s dreams and musings: a visit from the essence of the Northern Lights, a journey through space and time, attempts to find her place in the world, and a rejection of finding her place in the world. She doesn’t ​“come from” anywhere you’d be able to identify on a map, so don’t ask.

This is just the beginning.

Disco Breakdown, Evan Ifekoya, 3 mins, 19 secs

Disco Breakdown is a performance video, one in a series of four ​‘music video’ works that seek to ​‘queery’ the music video format. Found footage is from the Prelinger archive.

SAOIRSE AMIRA ANIS is an artist based in Dundee. She uses her art practice to investigate personal therapeutic processes and how this relates to the ways we share our vulnerabilities with each other. She is interested in the potential that lies in caring for ourselves and others, and the extent to which this nurturing can benefit us both personally and politically. This is informed by the calls for radical community-based approaches to governance and care that run through most queer Black feminist thought. Dancing is often a staple of her practice as an expression of joy, self-care, and love.