The protagonists of Rinland’s film are numerous pairs of hands, her own included, adorned with pink nail polish. The task being carried out by all these digits is the creation, destruction, and subsequent repair of a replica elephant tusk originally poached in Malawi, a task made up of many overlapping, unrelated processes, such as lifting, measuring, cleaning, cutting, copying. As these processes slowly merge, it comes to feel like a representation of process itself, a state without no start or finish, neither spectacular nor overtly sensual, a radical monotony, perversely soothing, uniquely cinematic. (JL)
- Locarno - Special Mention - 2019
- Toronto - 2019- Viennale - 2019
Argentine-British artist filmmaker, Jessica Sarah Rinland’s work culminates mainly in moving image work as well as in installation, photography, sculpture and books. Her work has been exhibited internationally at Toronto Film Festival, New York Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Rotterdam, Oberhausen, Somerset House (2016) and Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2011). She has won awards including Special Mention at Locarno Film Festival for her first Feature Film (2019), Primer Premio at Bienale de Imagen en Movimiento (2018), Arts + Science Award at Ann Arbor Film Fetisval (2014), ICA’s Best Experimental Film at LSFF (2013), and M.I.T’s Schnitzer prize for excellence in the arts (2017). In 2017/8 she was a Film Studies Center Fellow at Harvard University and is currently an Associate Artist at Somerset House Studios.