Site-Specific Video Installations in Northern Irish Prisons

 Technological and aesthetic developments  NI moving image production  Key artists, film-makers, performers  Video installation, performance art, independent film-making  ‘Troubles’/‘post-conflict’ themes  Contextualised by:  New media; expanded cinema; performance art; post-colonialism; social control, etc.  Challenging traditional notions of National Cinema and artistic canons

 ‘Video is the default medium of the twenty- first century. It is everywhere, trapped on monitors and computer screens and projected, cinema-style, onto pristine gallery walls, across public spaces and onto the hallowed surfaces of national museums.’ ( Video Art, A Guided Tour, p. 1)  ‘Discredited as the medium of truth, video in the 1990s was more often discussed for what it couldn’t do than for what it actually achieved.’ ( Video Art, A Guided Tour, p. 163)

 Inside Stories: Memories from the Maze and Long Kesh Prison, dir. Cahal McLaughlin (2004)  Inside Stories exhibition in Crumlin Road Gaol, March 2009  Their Stories, dir. Patsy Mullan (2009)  Exhibited in Context Gallery, Derry, September 2009  Stories told naturally  Personal accounts  Simultaneous multiple narratives

 British government refused ‘political’/’special category status to paramilitary prisoners  H-Blocks built  Protests over treatment  Closed in 2000

 Interviews with Billy Hutchinson, Gerry Kelly, and Desi Waterworth  Ownership of stories/collaboration vital  Prisons Memory Archive  Different stories told separately

 Ex-loyalist prisoner for murder  Advocated loyalist ceasefire  Key member of PUP  Had not returned to the site before  Site-reactive memory  Little media experience

 Held in Long Kesh nissen compound  Former RAF base  Vacated in late 1980s  Had remained untouched but now razed  Plenty of material to work with

 Ex-republican prisoner for weapons trafficking and bombs  Transferred to Maze from Brixton  Key figure in peace process and Sinn Fein  Media aware  Had returned since release

 1 block preserved in case peace talks broke down  Education/debates  Discussions led to peace process  Solidarity among inmates

 Prison officer  Serving in HMP Maghaberry in 2004  Security routines and regulations  ‘back against the wall’ body language  Seldom heard account  Isn’t granted same freedom

 Added part with Open University tutors at the Maze in the 1970s/80s  Filmed in car journey to Maze  Compare experiences  Audiovisual contrasts to other parts

 Site-specific exhibition  Belfast Prison closed 1996  Museum, gallery, performance space, tourist attraction  Monitors within cells  Teachers’ segment in larger conjoined cell

 Spectator empathy for confinement and cold  Sound bleed  Stressed emptiness  Drew viewers towards various voices  Separation reflected real life and interview process

 Lecturer in media  Interested in Armagh Women’s Prison  Video accompanied by Visual Residues – stills of Armagh Prison  Now closed  Same protests as Maze in 1970s/80s

 Double-channel video  Back-to-back monitors  Headsets/intimacy  Photographic – minimal movement  Slide show and voice  Double imagery (foreground and background)

 Rose McCartney  Patricia Moore  Candid accounts of treatment  Piece simplistic in form/presentation  Harrowing stories  Verbal contrasts visual