Graeme Arnfield (b. 1991, UK) is an artist filmmaker, curator and composer living in London, raised in Cheshire, UK. Producing sensory essay films from networked imagery his films use methods of investigative storytelling to explore issues of circulation, spectatorship and history. Research topics have included: the politics of digital networks, the distribution of ecological matter such as peat and asbestos and the adaptive circulation of global and local histories. His work has been presented worldwide including Berlinale Forum Expanded, International Film Festival Rotterdam, Courtisane Festival, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Sonic Acts Festival, European Media Arts Festival, Transmediale, IMPAKT Festival, Kasseler Dokfest, Plastik Festival, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, LUX, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Berlinische Gallerie, Signal Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery and on e-flux & Vdrome. He graduated with a Masters in Experimental Cinema at Kingston University.
https://vimeo.com/graemearnfield
https://www.facebook.com/graeme.arnfield
Email: grey12@magrathean.org for full videos and more information
Filmography:
Home Invasion (2023)
Pervading Animal (2021)
The Phantom Menace (2019)
Pedigree (2018)
Shouting at the Ground (2017)
Asbestos (2016; Made in Collaboration with Sasha Litvintseva)
Colossal Cave (2016)
Sitting in Darkness (2015)
Curation:
Dogs Leaving the Factory, European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, DE, 2019
True Dog Stories, a.m, London, UK, 2019
Extracted & Circulated: Material Exchange (with Beny Wagner), Close-Up, UK, 2018
02: Holt & Smithson / Lahire / Moti / Litvintseva & Arnfield (with Sasha Litvintseva & Maria Palacios Cruz), Courtisane Festival, Ghent, BE, 2017
Extracted & Circulated (with Sasha Litvintseva), Close-Up, UK, 2017
Full Exhibition List:
2023:
Forum Expanded, 73rd Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, Berlin, DE, 2023
Transmediale, Berlin, DE, 2023
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Berwick, UK, 2023
2022:
Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, ROU, 2022
Riga International Short Film Festival 2ANNAS, Riga, LV, 2022
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, FR/GR, 2022
38th Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Hamburg, DE, 2022
Ecology After Nature, Tramway, Glasgow, UK, 2022
2021:
Open City Documentary Festival, London, UK, 2021
Courtisane, Ghent, BE, 2021
Sunset Kino, Salzburger Kunstverein, Salzburg, AT, 2021
Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel, DE, 2021
EXiS, Seoul, KR, 2021
London Short Film Festival, London, UK, 2021
Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, Lausanne, CHE, 2021
Glasgow Short Film Festival, Glasgow, UK, 2021
#093 Nuclear Aesthetics, IMPAKT Channel, Online, 2021
Elemental Relations: Thinking Ecologically through Artist Films and Videos, NYU Shanghai, CN, 2021
Spit That Out 2021: North West Artist Film Programme, HOME, Manchester, UK, 2021
2020:
Forum Expanded, 70th Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, Berlin, DE, 2020
Courtisane, Ghent, BE, 2020
European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, DE, 2020
Sharjah Film Platform, Sharjah, UAE, 2020
Moscow Experimental Film Festival, Moscow, RUS, 2020
Videoex Festival, Zurich, CHE, 2020
Ecology After Nature: Industries, Communities and Environmental Memory, e-flux, online, 2020
Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival, ROU, 2020
Antimatter [Media Art], Victoria BC, CA, 2020
London Short Film Festival, London, UK, 2020
Time Before Time Ends, IMPAKT Channel, online, 2020
36th Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Hamburg, DE, 2020
Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, FR/GR, 2020
The Current Thing, Online, 2020
From Soil, Sand and Salt Crystals, Smart Museum of Art University of Chicago, US, 2020
16th Athens Digital Arts Festival, Athens, GR, 2020
Frameless24, Munich, DE, 2020
2019:
Dogs Leaving the Factory, European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, DE, 2019
Transmediale, Berlin, DE, 2019
Videonale.scope, Cologne, DE, 2019
Alternative Film/Video, Belgrade, RS, 2019
Werkleitz Festival Modell und Ruine, Halle (Saale), DE, 2019
Naturecolony, Blackwood Gallery, Toronto, CA, 2019
Hyperlinked, Flatpack Festival, Birmingham, UK, 2019
Not realy now not any more, Kunstnernes, Oslo, NO, 2019
Maths, Matter and Body, Lofoten International Film Festival, Svolvær, NO, 2019
Kurzfilmfestival Koln, Cologne, DE, 2019
After social networks. Practices, aesthetics and ethics of a content ecology generated by users, Université Paris 8,
Paris, FR, 2019
True Dog Stories, a.m, London, UK, 2019
MAN Museo d'Arte Provincia du Nuoro, Sardinina, IT, 2019
2018:
New Work: Graeme Arnfield Shouting at the Ground, LUX, UK, 2018
12×12, IBB Video Space, Berlinische Gallerie, Berlin, DE, 2018
Its origins are indeterminate, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK, 2018
European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, DE, 2018
IMPAKT Festival 2018: Algorithmic Superstructures, Utrecht, NLD, 2018
November Film Festival, UK, 2018
Antimatter Media Art, Victoria BC, CA, 2018
Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel, DE, 2018
Matter of Horror, Solyanka gallery, 6th Moscow International Biennale of Young Art, Moscow, Russia, 2018
Moscow Experimental Film Festival, Moscow, RUS, 2018
Asbestos: The questions of responsibility and (im)materialism, UDK Rundgang, Vilem Flusser archive, Berlin, Germany
P2P, Herrmann Germann Conspirators, Zurich, CHE, 2018
Zukünfte des Kinos - Kinos der Zukunft, Kinemathek Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, DE, 2018
NFKS FILM FESTIVAL, Kabelvag, Norway, NOR, 2018
FLAMIN Fellowship Screenings, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK, 2018
24th Edition Casablanca International Video Art Festival Morocco, Casablanca, MAR, 2018
Extracted & Circulated: Material Exchange (with Beny Wagner), Close-Up, UK, 2018
2017:
Forum Expanded, 67th Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin, Berlin, DE, 2017
International Film Festival Rotterdam, Rotterdam, NLD, 2017
Homebody (four films by Graeme Arnfield), Nocturnal Reflections, Milan, ITA, 2017
Sonic Acts Festival: The Noise of Being, Amsterdam, NLD, 2017
Courtisane, Ghent, BE, 2017
Chicago Underground Film Festival, Chicago, USA, 2017
European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, DE, 2017
Plastik Festival, Dublin, IRL, 2017
Antimatter Media Art, Victoria BC, CA, 2017
Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel, DE, 2017
Arctic Moving Image & Film Festival, Harstad, NOR, 2017
Moscow Experimental Film Festival, Moscow, RUS, 2017
Asbestos, Roaming Projects, London, UK, 2017
Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Minibar Stockholm, Stockholm, SE, 2017
Edge of Frame: After Nature (Part Two), London International Animation Festival, UK, 2017
Flatpack Film Festival, Birmingham, UK, 2017
Fracto, Berlin, DE, 2017
By Hyper Media, For Hyper Media, Open City Documentary Festival, London, UK, 2017
CITIZENSFIVE, Art Athina, International Art Fair of Athens, Athens, GRC, 2017
Extracted & Circulated, Close-Up, London, UK, 2017
Speleogenesis, Queensland Film Festival, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, AUS, 2017
DIGITALE_NARRATIONEN part #2 betwixt_&_between, Raumstation, Zürich, CHE, 2017
Hands Moving World to the Door, UCL Art Museum, London, UK, 2017
Strangloscope Convida Ulrich Ziemons, Cinema do CIC - Centro Integrado de Cultura, Florianopolis, BR, 2017
Sluice Screens, Sluice Biennial, London, UK, 2017
Playback Festival, ICA, London, UK, 2017
2016:
Courtisane, Ghent, BE, 2016
Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival, Berwick, UK, 2016
Something Eerie, Signal Gallery, Malmö, SE, 2016
32nd Hamburg International Short Film Festival, Hamburg, DE, 2016
LUX Salon: Like slow breathing, it seemed to emanate from inside the walls, London, UK, 2016
Post-Internet I: Our Fetishistic Relationship with Technology, Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, Winterthur, CH, 2016
Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel, DE, 2016
Artists’ Film Biennial: Open Call “Outside”, ICA, London, UK, 2016
POSTmatter: New Mythologies issue, Myths of Matter and Memory, 2016
Please Let Me Die Already, Kvit Galleri, Copenhagen, DK, 2016
Speeding and Braking: Navigating Acceleration Conference, Goldsmiths, London, UK, 2016
The Surf Club, Fotopub Festival, Novo Metso, SVN, 2016
OLHO Festival: Uncharted Lands, BR, 2016
In My Language, Soloway Gallery, New York, USA, 2016
Spectres of The Future, Visions, Montreal, CA, 2016
Modern Ruins and Future Ghosts, Surrey University, UK, 2016
Wondering Out of Time, Hastings and Brighton, UK, 2016
2015:
Vdrome #80, 13 – 26 October, 2015
Spooky at a Distance, Green Gallery West, Milwaukee, USA, 2015
Kasseler Dokfest, Kassel, DE, 2015
Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, UK, 2015
Studio Session: MA Experimental Film Screenings, ICA, London, UK, 2015
New World Gazelle, The Horse Hospital, London, UK, 2015
Talks:
Inside of a dog it's too hard to read, Good Press Gallery, Glasgow, UK, 2019
Zukünfte des Kinos - Kinos der Zukunft, Kinemathek Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, DE, 2018
Realizing your creative vision, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), UK, 2018
Additional Credits:
The names have changed, including my own and truths have been altered (Onyeka Igwe, 2019), Sound Mixing
Teeth (Jennifer Martin, 2019), Music Composition
Salarium (Sasha Litvintseva & Daniel Mann, 2017), Music Composition
We Have Rather Been Invaded (Ed Webb-Ingall, 2017), Sound Mixing
Awards:
Film London Lodestar, UK, 2021
The White Ship, Commissioned by HOME, Push Festival, Manchester, UK, 2021
Honourable Mention for Best Experimental Film, Sharjah Film Platform, Sharjah, UAE, 2020
The Phantom Menace distributed by Arsenal, Berlin, DE, 2020
Automat Commission, Antimatter [media art], Victoria BC, CA, 2020
Jury Member, European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, DE, 2019
Film Commission Sardegna Residency, Sardinia, IT, 2019
EMAF Award, European Media Arts Festival, Osnabrück, DE, 2018
Shouting at the Ground nominated for the Golden Key Award, best in festival, Kasseler Dokfest, 2018
Special Mention for The Original Music Award for Salarium, Cinéma du Réel, 2018
The FLAMIN Fellowship, Film London, 2017
Asbestos nominated for the Golden Key Award, best in festival, Kasseler Dokfest, 2017
British Council Travel Grant, 2016, 2017
Stop Play Record, Random Acts, short film commission, 2015
Education:
MA Experimental Film with Distinction, Kingston University, London, UK, 2014-2015
BA Film Studies & Media Studies, York St. John’s University, York, UK, 2009-2012
Press:
Desist Film: Review of The Phantom Menace, Berlinale, Berlin, DE, 2020
Art Monthly Issue 406, May 2017: Review of 02: Holt & Smithson / Lahire / Moti / Litvintseva & Arnfield, Courtisane Festival, Ghent, BE, 2017
The Magic Mineral: interview with Sasha Litvintseva and William Rees, LUX Moving Image, March, 2017
Cineuropa, Top Five European Shorts of 2016 for Sitting in Darkness, Online, 2016
Review of Something Eerie, Signal Gallery, Malmö, 2016 (in Swedish) http://www.kunstkritikk.se/kritikk/det-hemska-overgar-i-hopp/?d=se
http://www.vdrome.org/graeme-arnfield-sitting-in-darkness: interview with Leo Goldsmith, Vdrome, October, 2015