Origin of the Species & Slow Action by Ben Rivers

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Two films by artist Ben Rivers which muse on the ideas of Charles Darwin - one through the field of island biogeography, considering possible future Utopias evolving on isolated islands, the other through the thoughts of a 75-year-old amateur inventor and Darwin enthusiast. Picture This presents the first opportunity to see an element from a new four-screen work currently in production. Slow Action focuses on the relationship we have - and may have in the future - to islands with an accompanying spoken text, written in collaboration with Mark von Schlegell. Origin of the Species is a tentative, fleeting portrait of a man about whom we are told little but learn much: a man of inventions, of science, of solitude; and to whom Darwin's On the Origin of Species is evidently dear. The world is seen as simultaneously familiar and alien; full of wonder and composed of a palette of dream-colours, alternately rich and colour-saturated and steely or tawny. Slow Action is being developed in association with Animate Projects and Picture This and with support from Bristol City Council and the Bristish Council. Preview and Artist Talk: Wednesday 25 November, 6.30 - 8.30pm Come along to the space for an informal evening with the artist discussing the ideas behind these two films exhibited at Picture This.