Category Archives: About Illuminations

25 random things about Illuminations (again)

9.05.2013 posted by Category: About Illuminations, Film, Performance, Television, Visual arts
25 random things about Illuminations (again)

Back in 2009 we ran a blog post that was based on an article in the New York Times which claimed that  the ‘latest digital fad [is] a chain-letter-cum-literary exercise called “25 Random Things About Me”.’ For a while it was big on Facebook, and this was the only excuse the Times needed for its pop psychology: ‘…why this particular distraction has suddenly become a phenomenon is anyone’s guess. For most, it seems to be a creative way to indulge in social networking without coming off as needy or shamelessly self-absorbed.’ The world has moved on a bit since then, as there have been some changes too at Illuminations. Nonetheless, absolved from neediness or self-obsession, we are delighted to offer today the 2013 version of 25 Random Things About Illuminations. 
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Owning the means of production

6.05.2013 posted by Category: About Illuminations, Television
Owning the means of production

Yesterday was Karl Marx’s birthday and today is a holiday that more or less coincides with one on 1 May that in some eighty countries celebrates International Workers’ Day. On Friday last Illuminations said farewell, after more than a decade’s service, to its Sony DSR-500WS camera, a part of which you can see above (the whole is below). Significant as this event was for us, it is perhaps not obviously connected with celebrations of socialism around the world. But let me tell you a story that brings the two together.
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Clips from a life

27.03.2013 posted by Category: About Illuminations, Film, Visual arts
Clips from a life

Just after I had taken the photos above and below of these aged newspaper clippings I tossed them into a recycling sack. They followed hundreds – thousands – of others that had lain in piles in my bedsits and studies across the past forty years. Some of them anchored significant memories – one recalled my visit as a sixteen year old to the Tate Gallery’s William Blake show. But now they’ve gone, and I’m pleased that they have. Indulge me, however, as I explain about how I came to have these clippings and why I felt able finally to throw them away.

Newspaper clippings 2
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Federico on film

8.03.2013 posted by Category: About Illuminations, Visual arts
Federico on film

We have hugely enjoyed producing four short videos and a trailer for the exhibition Barocci: Brilliance and Grace which is at London’s National Gallery until 19 May. The films about the work of the late Renaissance master Federico Barocci were co-produced with the Saint Louis Art Museum, where the exhibition was presented before Christmas. The show opened here ten days ago and has been received with rapture in the Evening Standard by Brian Sewell (‘this is a beautiful, thrilling and intelligent exhibition’) and by Richard Dorment for the Telegraph (‘a staggeringly ambitious and heartbreakingly beautiful exhibition’). Some of the videos are on YouTube (although in a slightly eccentric way; see below) and we are embedding them here; the director of photography is Ian Serfontein, editor Todd Macdonald and producer Linda Zuck. This is the trailer:

Across the jump you will find three more of the films.
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On view at The Hepworth

4.03.2013 posted by Category: About Illuminations, Visual arts
On view at The Hepworth

We are delighted to present a short film that we have made for The Hepworth Wakefield about the three exhibitions of work by Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Alice Channer and Linder on view there until 12 May (above is a detail of a work by Alice Channer). It’s a terrific trio of shows, so do try to catch them. Many thanks to The Hepworth for the commission, and to director of photography Marc Rovira and editor Todd MacDonald.

The dreamer Delvaux on DVD

22.02.2013 posted by Category: About Illuminations, Television, Visual arts
The dreamer Delvaux on DVD

The Sleepwalker of Saint-Idesbald is the most recent addition to our catalogue of Art Lives films that we distribute on DVD. Completed in 1987, this is a richly interesting documentary about the Belgian Surrealist Paul Delvaux who died in 1994 at the age of 97. Delvaux is best-known for dreamlike tableaux featuring naked women in settings that are both fantastical and grounded in archaic Belgian townscapes. Adrian Maben’s film is a conventional biographical profile and its primary interest comes from the presence of Delvaux himself who relates his own life story. Plus there is a wealth of archive photographs together with images of Belgium at the time was shot, together with shots of many of Delvaux’s most famous images. There are some infelicities, such as incongruous music at times, and the film is very much of its moment, but it remains a valuable record of an intriguing artist. You can purchase the film here.
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Reprise: Art then, now

29.01.2013 posted by Category: About Illuminations, Television, Visual arts
Reprise: Art then, now

Another post from our archives, this time from 8 March 2011, when I was about to teach a very similar class to the one that I will give at the Royal College of Art tomorrow.

I am delighted to be contributing a quartet of classes to David Crowley’s Critical Writing in Art & Design course at the Royal College of Art. Our first two sessions considered television films about Henry Moore and then Kenneth Clark and Simon Schama. Tomorrow, the third session focusses on alternatives to the dominant traditions of arts programming on British television, and one key example is the 1987 series State of the Art that Illuminations produced for Channel 4. The series is published by us along with an interview with the series’ writer Sandy Nairne (available here as a double DVD for £39.99). It’s one of the major projects with which we’ve been involved and it remains close to the core of the company. And this despite the fact that when it was first shown it was roundly abused by almost everyone. 
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Nice

14.01.2013 posted by Category: About Illuminations, Digital media, Performance, Television
Nice

A number of reviews have appeared in the past few weeks of two recent projects from Illuminations: the Royal Shakespeare Company Julius Caesar on DVD (above) and The Sonnets by William Shakespeare, our collaboration with Touch Press, Faber and The Arden Shakespeare. In case you need reminding, here is the trailer for the DVD of Julius Caesar, which is available for purchase here. After you have taken a look, click across the jump to read extracts from the glowing reviews.


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2012 top ten, 6: John Wyver

29.12.2012 posted by Category: About Illuminations
2012 top ten, 6: John Wyver

Following is my contribution to the week of top tens, and the last of this half-dozen offerings. Again – apart from the first – this in no particular order. Many thanks to Keith, Linda, Todd, Simon and Louise for the earlier posts – and to you for reading; these blogs have proved pleasingly popular through the week. Happy New Year – and very best wishes for a stimulating and productive 2013.

1. Olympics opening ceremony

So much has been written about this spectacular – and I have no doubt that there is much more analysis to come. We linked to thirty of the best articles that appeared in the immediate aftermath (here, here and here), and each conveyed an aspect of its unique combination of poetry and politics, of history and the present, of spectacle and awe, of thought and emotion, all on the grandest scale and the biggest stage. Bravo, Dabby Boyle and all your colleagues, bravo, bravo.
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2012 top ten, 5: Louise Machin

28.12.2012 posted by Category: About Illuminations
2012 top ten, 5: Louise Machin

Our top tens of the year continue with the selection of our head of business development, Louise Machin. The final choice follows tomorrow.

Louise: In no particular order, this is my top ten list of things I enjoyed especially in 2012. Several of them are highlights drawn from a month-long road trip to California taken in August with my husband and three small boys, which was a fabulous experience for all of us.

1. Lotte Mullan, Green Note in Camden, London

My friend, Lotte sings so beautifully and it was a real pleasure to hear her play Green Note in April. The song I have selected speaks movingly about self-esteem and is from her first self-released album, Plain Jane.


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