LONDON.- A new group exhibition Film in Space selected by British artist filmmaker Guy Sherwin (b.1948) focuses on expanded cinema, a film movement which came to prominence in Britain in the early 1970s. The movement was closely associated with the London Film-Makers’ Co-operative, an organisation based in North London and set up in 1966 by artist-filmmakers to exhibit and produce experimental film work that challenged mainstream cinema. Sherwin worked at the LFMC in its early years and was strongly influenced by the films he experienced. Key works from this period will be shown along with pieces by younger artists who are continuing to experiment with the versatility of analogue media, as well as others who have started to take on board the advent of digital technologies. Throughout the exhibition there is an emphasis on film, light and sound as material to be constantly re-worked and manipulated. Film in Space runs at Camden Arts Centre from 15 December 2012 until 24 February 2013 and admission is free.

Traditionally, works of expanded cinema were not produced for exhibitions but made as live projection events often using multiple 16mm projectors and performed in alternative spaces, largely bypassing cinemas and galleries. This exhibition includes several film works from the period that have been adapted from live performances to cyclical installations changing them in unpredictable ways and suggest new possibilities for the work. In order to emphasis this transformation Sherwin has selected a programme for two of the galleries which will be changing throughout the exhibition. Alongside this there will be live performances of expanded cinema on Wednesday evenings in the Artists’ Studio.

Predominantly focusing on works by British filmmakers Sherwin has included seminal pieces from the ad hoc group Filmaktion: Malcolm Le Grice, Gill Eatherley, William Raban and Annabel Nicolson, as well as installations by Steve Farrer and Chris Welsby. While most of these artists have continued to exhibit and screen work internationally Nicolson has been seen less frequently. Here she will present an exhibition within the exhibition including drawings, book-works and textile pieces from her archive. This will be an opportunity to see this work for the first time.

In Gallery 3 he brings together a number of more contemporary pieces which involve objects (Denise Hawrysio) and paintings (Dan Hays) as well as film and video. There are also two site-specific commissions, one by filmmaker and writer Lucy Reynolds and one by video artist Simon Payne. Reynolds, who wrote her PhD on the early film work of Annabel Nicolson, is creating a work which involves the writings of other female artists and Payne is producing a new colour field for the back window in Gallery 3.

Film in Space highlights the unique qualities of film; the hand-made, tactile and physical awareness of the material; and many of the works evoke the transience of the natural world with the affects of light, space and movement on the environment.

This is the latest artist-selected exhibition following on from Simon Starling’s, Never the Same River (Possible Futures; Probable Pasts), Paulina Olowska’s Head-Wig: Portrait of an Exhibition and Steven Claydon’s Strange Events Permit the Luxury of Occurring.